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 tendency to prefer environments with unobstructed views (prospects) and areas of concealment and retreat (refuges).






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






3. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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 relationship between variables in a system where the consequences of an event are fed back in order to modify the event in the future.






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






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






22. 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.






23. 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.






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


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






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






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






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






29. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






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






31. 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)






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






33. A technique used to teach a desired behavior by reinforcing increasingly accurate approximations of the behavior.






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






35. 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






36. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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






38. 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?)






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






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






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






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






43. Adjusting parts of a device in relation to each other to create a sense of unity and cohesion.






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






45. A process in which similar characteristics evolve independently in multiple systems.






46. 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.






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






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






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






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