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






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






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






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






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






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






7. A method of limiting the actions that can be performed on a system.






8. 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






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






10. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






20. All products progress sequentially through four stages of existence: introduction - growth - maturity - and decline.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






33. 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.






34. 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.






35. An original model on which something is patterned






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






38. 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.)






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






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






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






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






43. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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