Gesture Elicitation Study

A research methodology in which participants are presented with the effects or outcomes of actions (called referents) and asked to propose gestures they would naturally perform to trigger those effects. This approach captures user preferences and expectations rather than imposing designer-chosen gestures, resulting in gesture sets that are more intuitive and memorable. In accessibility research, gesture elicitation studies conducted with participants who have disabilities reveal how specific conditions affect gesture preference and performance, providing empirical evidence for designing inclusive gesture vocabularies for touchscreens, wearables, and other input devices.