Test your basic knowledge |

Design Principles

Subject : engineering
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A relationship between controls and their movements or effects. When th effect corresponds to the expectation - the mapping is considered to be good or natural.






2. An activity will be pursued only if its benefits are equal to or greater than the costs. (ie. How much reading is too much to get the point of a message?)






3. Adjusting parts of a device in relation to each other to create a sense of unity and cohesion.






4. Elements that are close together are percieved to be more related than elements that are farther apart.






5. People understand and interact with systems and environments based on mental representations developed from experience.






6. The time required to move to a target is a function of the target size and distance to the target.


7. A process in which similar characteristics evolve independently in multiple systems.






8. A term used to describe a set of data - that when plotted - forms a symmetrical - bell- shaped curve.






9. A state of mental focus so intense that awareness of the 'real' world is lost - generally resulting in a feeling of joy and satisfaction.






10. The process of organizing information into related groupings in order to manage complexity and reinforce relationships in the information.






11. Beauty in design results from purity of function. Interpreted in 2 ways: A description of beauty or a prescription for beauty.






12. Teh act of copying properties of familiar objects - organisms - or environments in order to realize specifice benefits afforded by those properties.






13. A sequence of numbers in which each number is the sum of the preceding two.






14. A phenomenon of memory in which noticeably different things are more likely to be recalled that common things. (AKA Isolation/Novelty Effect)






15. A Gestalt law of organization; elements arrange in a straight line or a smooth curve are perceived as a group - and are interpreted as being more related than elements not on the line or curve.






16. A method of managing system complexity that involves dividing large systems into multiple - smaller self- contained systems.






17. The time it takes to make a decision increases as the number of alternatives increases.


18. A phenomenon of memory in which items presented at the beginning and end of a list are more likely to be recalled than items in the middle of a list.






19. A method of presentation in which information is presented in descending order of importance. (Critical information presented first).






20. There are three ways to organize materials to support a load or to contain and protect something: Mass structures - frame structures - and shell structures.






21. Pictures are remembered better than words.






22. A property of visual equivalence among elements in a form.






23. A technique for preventing unintended actions by requiring verification of the actions before they are performed.






24. A tendency to assume that a system that works at one scale will also work at a smaller or larger scale. (2 kinds: Load assumptions and Interaction assumptions)






25. The usability of a system is improved when similar parts are expressed in similar ways.






26. Hierarchical organization is the simplest structure for visualizing and understanding complexity.






27. A point of physical or attentional entry into a design. (Minimal Barriers - Points of Prospect - Progressive Lures)






28. A tendency to prefer faces in which the eyes - nose - lips and other features are close to the average of a population.






29. The use of pictorial images to improve the recognition and recall of signs and controls.






30. Designs should help people avoid errors and minimize the negative consequences of errors when they do occur.






31. An original model on which something is patterned






32. Tendency to perceive a set of individual elements as a single - recogniable pattern - rather than multiple - individual elements.






33. A method of illustrating relationships and patterns in system behaviors by representing two or more system variables in a controlled way.






34. The greater the effort to accomplish a task - the less likely the task will be accomplished successfully.






35. People tend to prefer savanna- like environments to other types of environments. Open areas - scattered trees - water - and uniform grassiness rather than other natural environments such as desert - jungle - and complex mtns.






36. When participants realise the aim of the study and may change their behaviour to help or disrupt the study.






37. A technique of composition in which a medium is divided into thirds - creating aesthetic positions for the primary elements of a design.






38. A tendency to interpret shaded or dark areas of an object as shadows resulting from a light source above the object.






39. A tendency to prefer environments with unobstructed views (prospects) and areas of concealment and retreat (refuges).






40. A relationship between variables in a system where the consequences of an event are fed back in order to modify the event in the future.






41. A ratio within the elements of a form - such as height to width - approximating 0.618.






42. A property in which a form is made up of parts similar to the whole or to one another.






43. Teachers treat students differently based on their expectations of how students will perform.






44. The use of simplified and incomplete models of a design to explore ideas - elaborate requirements - refine specifications - and test functionality.






45. Given a choice between functionally equivalent designs - the simplest design should be selected.


46. A phenomenon of visual processing in which certain line orientations are more quickly and easily processed and discriminated than other line orientations.






47. A phenomenon of memory in which information that is analyzed deeply is better recalled than information that is analyzed superficially.






48. The use of more elements than necessary to maintain the performance of a system in the event of failure of one or more of the elements.






49. The designs that help people perform optimally are often not the same as the designs that people find most desirable.






50. The tendency for people to perform better or worse based on the expectations of another.