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






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






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


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






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






6. 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.






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






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






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






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






11. 1) Functionality 2) Reliability 3) Usability 4) Proficiency 5) Creativity. In order for design to be successful - it must meet ppl's basic need before it can attempt to satisfy higher- level needs.






12. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






26. 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.






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


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






29. A tendency to see objects and patterns as 3D when certain visual cues are present.






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






45. 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.)






46. 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)






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






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






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






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