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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






16. A method of illustrating relationships and patterns in system behaviors by representing two or more system variables in a controlled way.






17. 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?)






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






26. 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.






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






35. 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.






36. 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)






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






48. 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.)






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






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