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 Gestalt principle of organization holding that aspects of perceptual field that move or function in a similar manner will be perceived as a unit






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






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






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






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






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






8. 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.






9. 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?)






10. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






18. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






31. 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.






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






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






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






35. Elements that are connected by uniform visual properties - such as color - are perceived to be more related than elements that are not connected.






36. Teachers treat students differently based on their expectations of how students will perform.






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


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






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






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






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






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






43. 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.)






44. A phenomenon of memory in which information that is analyzed deeply is better recalled than information that is analyzed superficially.






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






46. 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.






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






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


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