Wizard of Oz Study

A research method in which participants interact with what they believe is an automated system, but which is actually operated in whole or in part by a human "wizard" hidden from view. The method is used to evaluate the usability and desirability of interfaces that do not yet exist or are technically infeasible to build, establishing an ideal performance baseline before investing in development. In accessibility research, Wizard of Oz studies have been used to test speech-driven web browsing for blind users, where a human interpreted natural language commands and executed them via a screen reader, simulating a perfect speech interface. This approach separates the question of whether an interface concept is useful from whether current technology can implement it.