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






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






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


4. The tendency to perceive objects as unchanging - despite changes in sensory input. (such as perspective - lighting - color or size)






5. A diagram that describes the general pattern followed by the eyes when looking at evenly distributed - homogeneous information.






6. Tendency to form an overall positive impression of a person on the basis of one positive characteristic






7. 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)






8. The ratio of face to body in an image that influences the way the person in the image is perceived. (High = intelligent / Low = physical)






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






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






11. The tendency to see attractive people as more intelligent - competent - moral and sociable than unattractive people.






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






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






14. A technique used to teach a desired behavior by reinforcing increasingly accurate approximations of the behavior.






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






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






17. As the flexiblity of a system increases - its usability decreases.






18. The visual clarity of text - generally based on the size - typeface - contrast - text block - and spacing of the characters used.






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


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






21. A technique used to asociate a stimulus with an unconscious physical or emotional response.






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






23. 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.






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






25. 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?)






26. 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.






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






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






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






30. An action or ommission of action yielding an unintended result.






31. A process of repeating a set of operation until a specific result is achieved.






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






33. 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.






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






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






36. A preference for a particular ratio of waist size to hip size in men and women. Men prefer 0.7 in women. Women prefer 0.9 in men.






37. An ability to detect threatening stimuli more efficiently than nonthreatening stimuli.






38. A space that has territorial markers - opportunities for surveillance - and clear indications of activity and ownership.






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






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






41. 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.






42. 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.)






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






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






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






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






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






48. The relative ease with which a destination - idea - or concept may be reached.






49. 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.






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