Piggyback Prototyping

Piggyback prototyping is a research methodology in which researchers add new features or interventions to already-deployed, live systems rather than building standalone prototypes, enabling study of user behaviour with novel features in authentic real-world contexts. The approach was notably used in social computing research to add capabilities via platform APIs and bots without access to underlying source code. In accessibility research, piggyback prototyping is valuable for studying how new AI features — such as enhanced image descriptions or result verification — would be used in practice with the assistive technology people already depend on in their daily lives, without the ecological validity limitations of laboratory prototypes or standalone research tools.