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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






14. 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.






15. 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.






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






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






18. The process of organizing information into related groupings in order to manage complexity and reinforce relationships in the information.






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






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






21. 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.






22. 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.






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






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






25. 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.






26. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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


28. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






40. 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)






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






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






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






44. An original model on which something is patterned






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






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






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






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






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






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