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. Designs should help people avoid errors and minimize the negative consequences of errors when they do occur.






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






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






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






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






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






7. 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?)






8. A property of visual equivalence among elements in a form.






9. 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.






10. 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.






11. 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.






12. 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)






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






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






15. The distressing state of thought caused by recognizing an inconsistency between behavior/thought and value/belief.






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






17. 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.






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






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






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


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






22. 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.






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






47. 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.






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






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






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