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 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.






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






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






4. A point of physical or attentional entry into a design. (Minimal Barriers - Points of Prospect - Progressive Lures)






5. 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?)






6. A tendency to interpret ambiguous images as simple and a complete unit - versus complex and incomplete. (Gestalt principle of perception).






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






16. 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






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






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


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






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






21. As the flexiblity of a system increases - its usability decreases.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






29. 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.






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






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






32. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






33. 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.






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






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






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






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






38. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






44. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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