This Is a Prototype cover art

This Is a Prototype

The Curious Craft of Exploring New Ideas

Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

This Is a Prototype

By: Scott Witthoft, Stanford d.school
Narrated by: Scott Witthoft
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $12.99

Buy Now for $12.99

About this listen

A practical guide to prototyping as a way to revolutionize your work and creative life, from Stanford University's world-renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, aka the d.school.

Prototyping is a way to test an idea to see if it can be successful before investing too much time and too many resources. But it's not only designers who "prototype" as they work. A skateboarder tries a new trick; that's a prototype experience. A chef experiments with a new dish and new ingredients; that's a prototype experience, too. Once a prototype is made, the creator gains knowledge about what worked and what didn't, what should be used again and what should be trimmed from the experience.

This is a book about becoming better at prototyping by building things and experiences that will help you learn from your attempts, no matter what you're aiming to achieve. Readers will learn how to not only create prototypes but also how to reflect on the success and failure of those attempts. Scott Witthoft, who teaches courses in design and prototyping to students around the world, introduces a comprehensive number of tools and materials for prototyping, including digital platforms and physical objects. And he breaks down real-life examples of prototype experiments with accompanying photographs for the reader to observe large- and small-scale prototyping in action.

With Witthoft as your guide, you'll put the principles of design into practice and bring your vision to life—one prototype at a time.

*Includes a downloadable PDF of visual references and illustrations from the book
Career Success Creativity Decision-Making & Problem Solving Personal Development Career

Critic Reviews

“This sharp little book will get you making more with less. Dozens of methods show how designers can use prototypes for asking questions, framing experiences, and observing behaviors. The bright illustrations and concrete examples will show you how to ground your prototypes in crystal-clear intentions.”—Ellen Lupton, co-author of Health Design Thinking

“This Is a Prototype is filled with actionable tactics and a terrific emphasis on how to ask good questions, the prerequisite for all the world’s best answers. This book is the Lonely Planet guide to your brain, for people who want to get off their own beaten paths and make new ones.”—John Cassidy, founder of Klutz Press

No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.