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






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






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






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






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






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






8. 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.)






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






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






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






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






13. A sequence of numbers in which each number is the sum of the preceding two.






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






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






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






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






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






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






20. 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.






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






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






23. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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


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






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






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


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






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






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






38. Tendency to form an overall positive impression of a person on the basis of one positive characteristic






39. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






45. 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?)






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






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






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






49. Using more elements than is necessary to offset the effects of unknown variables which may cause a system failure.






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