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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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 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.)






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






13. Pictures are remembered better than words.






14. 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)






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






16. An original model on which something is patterned






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






25. 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.






26. 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.






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






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






36. The use of pictorial images to improve the recognition and recall of signs and controls.






37. 1) Functionality 2) Reliability 3) Usability 4) Proficiency 5) Creativity. In order for design to be successful - it must meet ppl's basic need before it can attempt to satisfy higher- level needs.






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






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






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






41. 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.






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






43. 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.






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






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






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






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






48. 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.






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






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