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






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






4. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






10. 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.






11. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






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






13. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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






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






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


17. 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.






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






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






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






21. A ratio within the elements of a form - such as height to width - approximating 0.618.






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. 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?)






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






36. 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.






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






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






39. 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.






40. A tendency to see people and things iwth baby- faced features as more naive - helpless - and honest than those with mature features.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






49. A technique for bringing attention to an area of text or image.






50. 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)