---
# System prepended metadata

title: Pretotyping
tags: [method, art-based methods guide, book]

---

# Pretotyping
*Authors: [Catho Van Den Bosch](https://example.com)*,[Sandy Claes](https://example.com) 
*Attribution: Pretotyping.org  

(reference for material source and original author, if any)*

Summary
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**Art-form**^1^: Visual (and performing) art 

(1. visual art / 2. moving images / 3. performing art / 4. live art / 5. literary art / multiple methods approach)


![](https://i.imgur.com/VsivohF.jpg)

*Example of pretotyping during a workshop*

**Requirements**
* Time: 90 minutes
* Difficulty^2^: 2 stars
* What you'll need: crafting materials (e.g. cardboard, markers)
* Participants: creatives involved in UX research

Description
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Pretotyping (the 'pret' is for pretend) is a collection of creative methods to quickly test whether a product or service before investing time and efforts in a working prototype. 

**Steps**
1. Isolate the key assumption you would solve with the prototype.
2. Write down how the prototype solves this assumption in different steps (e.g. in a storyboard, in a user journey, etc.). Divide the participants in different roles (e.g. pretend to be the prototype, pretend a user, etc.).
3. Enact the prototype and its journey in a staged setting.
4. Through this pretended play, evaluate whether the inital assumption is correct. The results may be used to develop a high fidelity prototype in a later stage. 

**Which stage to use it in**

* Identification, framing  


**Why it is useful**
*"Make sure you are building the Right it before building it right" - Alberto Savoia (Google's first Engineering director and originator of the pretotyping technique)*

Pretotyping is a cheap and fast method to gather insights in how people will interact with the product. Failing fast and cheap ulitmately helps to develop a final product with a greater chance of succeeding on the market. 

**How to document**

Document the pretotyping efforts through photos and videos. After the experience, participants may create a written or visual reflection of their experience.

**Analysis**

Discussion in group of the pretotyping experience and its reflection, which is followed by an in-group analysis.


*Footnotes*

^1^ Categories are  based on Sara Coemans and Karin Hannes. 2017. Researchers under the spell of the arts: Two decades of using arts-based methods in community-based inquiry with vulnerable populations. Educational Research Review 22 (2017), 34–49.
^2^ 1-5 stars, I star being easy to facilitate and do not require deep artistic skills and 5 stars requiring deep level artistic skills.
^3^ The article "I woke up as a newspapers", by Michael Evans, Lianne Kerlin and Caroline Jay gives an example of how the pretotyping techniques could be applied in a workshop 


###### tags: `art-based methods guide` `book` `method`