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. A tendency to prefer environments with unobstructed views (prospects) and areas of concealment and retreat (refuges).






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






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






4. An original model on which something is patterned






5. An ability to detect threatening stimuli more efficiently than nonthreatening stimuli.






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






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






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






9. The deliberate use of a weak element that will fail in order to protect other elements in the system from damage.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






17. 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.






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


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






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






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






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






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






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






25. 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)






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






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






28. 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.






29. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






36. 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.






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






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






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






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






41. A method of creating imagery - emotions - and understanding of events through an interaction between a storyteller and an audience.






42. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






49. People tend to prefer savanna- like environments to other types of environments. Open areas - scattered trees - water - and uniform grassiness rather than other natural environments such as desert - jungle - and complex mtns.






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