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 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.






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






3. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






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






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






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






7. Patients experience treatment effects based on their belief that a treatment will work.






8. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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






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






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






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






13. 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?)






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






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






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






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






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


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






20. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






28. A technique for preventing unintended actions by requiring verification of the actions before they are performed.






29. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






37. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






46. An original model on which something is patterned






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






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






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


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