UX Trivia 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'Fitts's Law' as applied to UX design?
- Users prefer designs that fit their screen size
- The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target (Correct answer)
- Menus should fit within three levels of hierarchy
- Font size should fit within the golden ratio
Correct answer: The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target
Fitts's Law predicts that larger and closer targets are faster to click or tap, guiding designers to make important interactive elements large and easily reachable.
Question 2: In color theory, what are 'analogous colors'?
- Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel
- Colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel (Correct answer)
- Black, white, and gray tones
- Colors that appear identical under different lighting conditions
Correct answer: Colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel
Analogous colors sit next to each other on the color wheel (e.g., blue, blue-green, green) and create harmonious, low-contrast palettes often found in nature.
Question 3: What is a 'red route' in UX prioritization?
- A navigation path highlighted in red to indicate errors
- A critical user task or journey that must work flawlessly because it is performed frequently and is essential (Correct answer)
- A testing protocol for high-priority bug fixes
- A color-coded wireframe annotation system
Correct answer: A critical user task or journey that must work flawlessly because it is performed frequently and is essential
Red routes (named after London's busiest bus routes) are the most critical flows in a product — tasks done frequently by many users that cannot afford to fail.
Question 4: What does 'responsive design' primarily ensure?
- That a website loads quickly on all devices
- That a website's layout adapts to different screen sizes and resolutions (Correct answer)
- That all user interactions receive instant feedback
- That a website passes accessibility audits automatically
Correct answer: That a website's layout adapts to different screen sizes and resolutions
Responsive design uses flexible grids, fluid images, and CSS media queries to ensure a consistent, optimized experience across different screen sizes.
Question 5: In UX research, what is a 'screener' questionnaire used for?
- Evaluating whether a prototype passes accessibility standards
- Identifying and recruiting research participants who meet specific criteria (Correct answer)
- Filtering spam responses from surveys
- Screening a product for dark patterns before launch
Correct answer: Identifying and recruiting research participants who meet specific criteria
A screener is a short questionnaire used during recruitment to ensure research participants match the target audience and study requirements.
Question 6: What is the concept of 'affordance' in design, as originally described by James Gibson?
- The cost-effectiveness of a design solution
- The perceived and actual properties of an object that suggest how it can be used (Correct answer)
- The accessibility features built into a product
- The emotional attachment users develop toward a product
Correct answer: The perceived and actual properties of an object that suggest how it can be used
Gibson defined affordance as the actionable properties of an object relative to the actor — a door handle 'affords' pulling because its shape suggests that action.
Question 7: What distinguishes a 'moderated' usability test from an 'unmoderated' one?
- Moderated tests use quantitative metrics; unmoderated tests are qualitative only
- A researcher is present to guide, prompt, and probe participants in real time during moderated tests (Correct answer)
- Unmoderated tests require more participants than moderated tests
- Moderated tests are conducted in person; unmoderated tests are always remote
Correct answer: A researcher is present to guide, prompt, and probe participants in real time during moderated tests
In a moderated test, a facilitator actively interacts with the participant to ask follow-up questions and explore unexpected behaviors, while unmoderated tests run without researcher involvement.
UX Trivia 5
What is 'Fitts's Law' as applied to UX design?