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






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






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






4. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






22. 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.






23. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






40. 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?)






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






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






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






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






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






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






47. An original model on which something is patterned






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






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






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