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






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






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






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






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






6. An original model on which something is patterned






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






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






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






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






11. 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.






12. 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.






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






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






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






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






17. 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.)






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






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






20. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






34. The visual clarity of text - generally based on the size - typeface - contrast - text block - and spacing of the characters used.






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






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






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






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






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






40. 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.






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






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






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






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






45. Pictures are remembered better than words.






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






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






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






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






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