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






3. 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.






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






5. An original model on which something is patterned






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






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






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


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






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






11. 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.)






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






28. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






43. A technique of combining many units of information into a limited number of units or chunks - so that the information is easier to process and remember.






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






45. Teh act of copying properties of familiar objects - organisms - or environments in order to realize specifice benefits afforded by those properties.






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






47. 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.






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






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






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