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. The act of measuring certain sensitive variable in a system can alter them - and confound the accuracy of the measurement.






2. Elements perceived as either figures (objects of focus) or ground (the rest of the perceptual field)






3. A technique for bringing attention to an area of text or image.






4. A method of reorganizing information to make the information simpler - more meaningful and easier to remember. (ie. First Letter - Keyword - Rhyme - Feature Name)






5. An original model on which something is patterned






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


7. 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.






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






9. 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.






10. Patients experience treatment effects based on their belief that a treatment will work.






11. Successful products typically follow four stages of creation: requirements - design - development - and testing.






12. It is often preferable to settle for a satisfactory solution - rather than pursue an optimal solution.






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






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






15. Elements that are connected by uniform visual properties - such as color - are perceived to be more related than elements that are not connected.






16. The level of control provided by a system should be related to the proficiency and experience levels of the people using the system.






17. Elements that are similar are perceived to be more related than elements that are dissimilar.






18. Using more elements than is necessary to offset the effects of unknown variables which may cause a system failure.






19. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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






21. There are five ways to organize information: Category - time - location - alphabet - and continuum.






22. The distressing state of thought caused by recognizing an inconsistency between behavior/thought and value/belief.






23. The deliberate use of a weak element that will fail in order to protect other elements in the system from damage.






24. The process of using spatial and environmental information to navigate to a destination.






25. 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.






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






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






28. The tendency for people to behave differently when they know they are being studied






29. A phenomenon in which mental processing is made slower and less accurate by competing mental processes.






30. A phenomenon in which perception and behavior changes as a result of personal expectations or the expectations of others. (Halo effect - Hawthorne effect - Pygmalion effect - Placebo effect - Rosenthal effect - Demand characteristics.)






31. 1) Physiological 2) Safety 3) Love 4) Self-Esteem 5) Self-Actualization


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






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






34. The debgree to which prose can be understood - based on the complexity of words and sentences.






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






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






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






38. The ratio of relevant to irrelevant information in a display. The highest possible signal- to- noise ratio is desirable in design.






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






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






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






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






43. Memory for recognizing things is better than memory for recalling things.






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






45. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






46. An attribute of an object that allows people to intuitively know how to use it






47. Repeated exposure to stimuli for which people have neutral feelings will increase the likeability of the stimuli.






48. A strategy for managing information complexity in which only necessary or requested information is displayed at any given time.






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






50. 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.