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






2. 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.






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






4. A technique of combining many units of information into a limited number of units or chunks - so that the information is easier to process and remember.






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






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






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






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






9. 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






10. 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.






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






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






13. 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?)






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






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


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






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






18. Successful products typically follow four stages of creation: requirements - design - development - and testing.






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






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






21. The tendency for people to behave differently when they know they are being studied






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






32. An original model on which something is patterned






33. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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






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






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






37. A diagram that describes the general pattern followed by the eyes when looking at evenly distributed - homogeneous information.






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






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






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






41. 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.






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






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






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






45. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






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






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






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






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






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