experimental psychology, human factors, ergonomics, linguistics, and usability engineering to describe a testing or iterative design methodology wherein an experimenter (the “wizard”), in a laboratory setting, simulates the behavior of a theoretical intelligent computer application (often by going into another room and intercepting all communications between participant and system). Sometimes this is done with the participant’s a-priori knowledge and sometimes it is a low-level deceit employed to manage the participant’s expectations and encourage natural behaviors.