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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






10. 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.






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






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






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






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






15. A Gestalt principle of organization holding that aspects of perceptual field that move or function in a similar manner will be perceived as a unit






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






17. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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






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






20. The usability of a system is improved when its status and methods of use are clearly visible.






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






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






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






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






25. A technique that influences decision making and judgement by manipulating the way information is presented.






26. A tendency to interpret ambiguous images as simple and a complete unit - versus complex and incomplete. (Gestalt principle of perception).






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






28. 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.






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






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






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






32. 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.






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






34. A technique used to modify behavior by reinforcing desired behaviors - and ignoring or punishing undesired behaviors.






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






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






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






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


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


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






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






42. The quality of system output is dependent on the quality of system input.






43. 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.






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






45. 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.






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






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






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






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






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