User Elicitation

A participatory user-research method, widely used in gesture and interaction design, in which end users or domain experts are shown a desired system effect (a "referent" such as "rotate this object") and asked to propose the input action they believe should trigger it. Introduced by Wobbrock and colleagues, elicitation generates user-defined vocabularies claimed to be more intuitive and discoverable than designer-authored ones. In accessibility research, elicitation has been adapted to surface input preferences of users with motor, cognitive, or sensory disabilities, though critics note that elicited "natural" actions can still be biomechanically fragile or culturally contingent, motivating pairing elicitation with expert review by clinicians, ergonomists, or accessibility specialists.