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






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






4. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






11. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






20. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






48. A tendency to see people and things iwth baby- faced features as more naive - helpless - and honest than those with mature features.






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






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