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 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.






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






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






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






5. 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?)






6. A method of creating imagery - emotions - and understanding of events through an interaction between a storyteller and an audience.






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






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






9. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






10. 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.)






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






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






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






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






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






16. 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.






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






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






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






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






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


22. 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)






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






33. An original model on which something is patterned






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






35. 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.






36. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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