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






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






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






4. 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?)






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






14. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






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


16. 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.






17. 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.






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


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






20. 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.






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






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






23. 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.






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






25. A technique of combining many units of information into a limited number of units or chunks - so that the information is easier to process and remember.






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






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


28. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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