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






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






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






4. A technique used to asociate a stimulus with an unconscious physical or emotional response.






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






24. 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?)






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






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






27. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






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






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






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






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


41. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






48. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






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






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