What is Prototype?
A prototype is a model or sample of a product, created prior to its release with the goal of testing the product and observing its behavior and effectiveness in use. The results of this testing are then used to further alter and improve the product in question, often redesigning it, fixing any issues which may have come up, and otherwise upgrading the already existing design.
How is Prototype used?
Zippia reviewed thousands of resumes to understand how prototype is used in different jobs. Explore the list of common job responsibilities related to prototype below:
- Qualified as Engineering Watch Supervisor for the S8G Nuclear Propulsion Prototype.
- Selected as instructor for Nuclear Prototype Training School.
- Qualified up to and including Engineering Watch Supervisor Staff instructor at the S8G land-based nuclear prototype.
- Qualified first in my class at submarine prototype in Saratoga Springs New York.
- Directed Toledo prototype inventory management operations.
- Supported engineers with building radio prototypes per blueprints/schematics * Programmed software on micro-chips and tested equipment to ensure appropriate operation.
Are Prototype skills in demand?
Yes, prototype skills are in demand today. Currently, 11,515 job openings list prototype skills as a requirement. The job descriptions that most frequently include prototype skills are nuclear operator, building coordinator, and user experience team lead.
How hard is it to learn Prototype?
Based on the average complexity level of the jobs that use prototype the most: nuclear operator, building coordinator, and user experience team lead. The complexity level of these jobs is basic.
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What jobs can you get with Prototype skills?
You can get a job as a nuclear operator, building coordinator, and user experience team lead with prototype skills. After analyzing resumes and job postings, we identified these as the most common job titles for candidates with prototype skills.
Nuclear Operator
Job description:
Nuclear operators are skilled professionals who are responsible for controlling the flow of electricity that is generated by a nuclear power plant. These operators are required to maintain preventive maintenance items that are essential to the safety and efficient operations of the nuclear power plant. They must use proper protective equipment and clothing since they will be performing work in radiological controlled areas. Nuclear operators must also manage multiple operators to ensure the safe operation of all primary and secondary plant systems.
- Electrical Equipment
- Prototype
- Electrical Systems
- Radiological
- Test Equipment
- Naval Nuclear
Senior Electronic Engineering Technician
- Prototype
- Lab Equipment
- Product Development
- Test Procedures
- Test Fixtures
- Troubleshoot
Senior Design Project
Job description:
A senior design project worker is responsible for developing digital content designs and applications using various software tools, following clients' specifications and requests. Senior designers must be highly-organizational and communicative, especially on providing progress updates to the client and performing multiple design adjustments as needed. A senior designer should create and recommend designs based on the clients' budget goals without compromising the quality of the output. Senior design projects work closely with the design engineering team to maintain flawless layouts and achieve client satisfaction.
- Solidworks
- Medical Devices
- Prototype
- CAD
- Autocad
- Design Projects
Senior Research And Development Technician
- Prototype
- Product Development
- Lab Notebook
- Solidworks
- Test Procedures
- Troubleshoot
Special Project Engineer
Job description:
A special project engineer is in-charged in the preparation, scheduling, coordination, and monitoring of engineering projects. He/She or she should be able to establish good relationships with prospective clients to gain information on engineering requirements and delegate tasks to staff. The core skills that a special project engineer should possess include good creative ability and excellent mechanical and listening skills. Other requirements to qualify for the position include a college degree in business or mechanical engineering.
- DOD
- Design Changes
- Engineering Support
- R
- Prototype
- CAD
Mechanical Engineering Technologist
Job description:
A Mechanical Engineering Technologist is responsible for developing and assembling mechanical parts and components, following the head engineer's design specifications. They identify resources for manufacturing, ensuring that the deliverables follow the high-quality standards and requirements. They also analyze the design and recommend adjustments for outputs, if there are any. A Mechanical Engineering Technologist operates various mechanical tools and equipment to perform tasks efficiently, requiring strict adherence to the safety protocols and regulations within the operational premises.
- CAD
- Solidworks
- Prototype
- Engineering Drawings
- Hand Tools
- Mechanical Systems
Senior Product Design Engineer
Job description:
A senior product design engineer oversees system development, developing processes, and methodologies geared at promoting customer satisfaction. They are charged with analyzing and directing recommendations for resolving problems to fulfill client expectations. Their responsibilities include planning projects, conducting standard functional analysis of products to translate customer specification into product performance criteria, conducting benchmarking studies, and analyzing products' market performance to facilitate competitive delivery of designs.
- CAD
- Solidworks
- Prototype
- GD
- FEA
- Prototyping
Manufacturing Technology Manager
- Lean Manufacturing
- GMP
- Capital Projects
- Prototype
- Cost Reduction
- Product Development
Hardware Development Engineer
Job description:
A hardware development engineer carries out an analysis of the requirements of a needed product and tries to develop a prototype, taking into consideration the cost and specifications. You're also expected to work on already existing products and seek ways to modify them. You will be in charge of your team members and oversee all they do. Some of the hardware you may be required to design and test includes microprocessors, routers, keyboards, circuit boards, etc.
- Hardware Development
- Analog
- PCB
- Prototype
- Firmware
- Debugging
Senior Optical Engineer
- MATLAB
- Zemax
- Optical Components
- Prototype
- Optical Engineering
- Design Reviews
Design Development Engineer
Job description:
Design development engineers are engineering professionals who are responsible for testing products for various industries such as electronics and synthetic textiles. These engineers must collaborate with the research and development (R&D;) organization to carry out initial new product development projects. They are required to coordinate a project with clients and consultants to ensure the approval of project permits and construction feasibility. Design development engineers must also possess skills in using software such as SolidWorks to model complex product parts and components.
- Solidworks
- FEA
- C++
- Prototype
- R
- Product Development
How much can you earn with Prototype skills?
You can earn up to $51,893 a year with prototype skills if you become a nuclear operator, the highest-paying job that requires prototype skills. Building coordinators can earn the second-highest salary among jobs that use Python, $45,433 a year.
| Job title | Average salary | Hourly rate |
|---|---|---|
| Nuclear Operator | $51,893 | $25 |
| Building Coordinator | $45,433 | $22 |
| User Experience Team Lead | $109,549 | $53 |
| Senior Electronic Engineering Technician | $60,079 | $29 |
| Senior Design Project | $92,208 | $44 |
Companies using Prototype in 2025
The top companies that look for employees with prototype skills are U.S. Department of the Treasury, Intel, and Oracle. In the millions of job postings we reviewed, these companies mention prototype skills most frequently.
Departments using Prototype
| Department | Average salary |
|---|---|
| Engineering | $103,624 |
20 courses for Prototype skills
1. Rapid Prototyping and Tooling
In the Rapid Prototyping and Tooling specialization, students learn how to make effective prototypes. Why is rapid prototyping important, and how does it facilitate the overall engineering design process? At what point in the process should rapid prototyping be employed? How can electronics bring a prototype to the next level? When is it appropriate to make a prototype out of cardboard rather than aluminum? When should you use 3D printing instead of a laser cutter? Real examples provide answers to questions like these and highlight best practices on when to use different materials and manufacturing equipment.\n\nYou can see an overview of the specialization from Dr. Frank here...
2. Prototyping for Web I: Information, UX, and Paper Prototypes
Create the 6 fundamental elements of rapid prototyping to start any web design project quickly efficiently and smartly: a project outline a site map a set of brand guidelines several user stories quick paper wireframes and a usability test. Taking time with these simple steps speeds up every project. Demystify the first steps of any web design project in this 52-minute class for designers beginning front-end developers and anyone curious to design a site from scratch. Erica Heinz provides practical instruction in information architecture user experience and paper prototypes so you can develop content outlines sitemaps brand guidelines user stories wireframes and usability tests—all the elements you need to start a web project right. Whether you hand them off to a developer or build the site yourself you’ll love having everything organized from the start. Want to build the site yourself? Check out the next two classes from Erica Heinz: Web Design II: Visuals for UX and Branding and Web Design III: Responsive Design with HTML and CSS ...
3. Prototyping with Sketch
Maybe you're the web designer looking for a tool with less overhead to create custom web sites? Or, perhaps, you're a programmers who wants to prototype interfaces quickly? Are you a UX/UI Designer whose trying to iterate through multiple produce interfaces? Maybe you're an experienced mobile app designer looking for a lightweight alternative to Photoshop. Maybe you just want to learn how to design prototypes the right way? Whatever your reason, this is the time to learn the Sketch digital design tool kit. Unlike other design software Sketch is designed to get out of your way and allow you to create great prototypes of web sites, mobile applications, software applications, tablet applications and much more. While other applications can weigh you down with unnecessary features you'll never use, Sketch is designed to be quick and light. Designed to get you doing design work quickly and with ease. It's about your creativity- not your ability to learn dozens of software features. And, if you're ready to start working with Sketch there is no better way to learn than this course Prototyping with Sketch is a complete, comprehensive course on the Sketch tool. You'll become familiar with each of the tools you'll use to design user interfaces for web and mobile based applications. We wanted this course to be about doing- so you won't waste time in endless lectures. We've included a number of high quality laboratory exercises in the course to quickly get you doing the type of work professional designers do in Sketch every day. Each of the lab exercises is relevant to the work you'll be doing as a professional developer. Your instructor, Matt Cameron, made sure every detail of this course is efficient, interesting, and most importantly, relevant! Each minute, you'll learn more about the Sketch digital design tool and, add skills to your professional toolbox that will make you a consummate pro. It's time to stop thinking about working with a tool like Sketch- It's time to learn the tool. With the informative lectures, engaging activities and numerous tips, you'll be working as a professional designer in web or mobile as soon as you finish this course. Enroll in Prototyping with Sketch now!...
4. Rapid Prototyping Using 3D Printing
This specialization will help you understand how prototyping can be accelerated by the use of 3D printing. It first provides insights into the core processes in engineering and product design & development to bring out the importance of prototyping. It then guides learners through different types and characteristics of prototypes, and the different ways of producing prototypes. Learners are then introduced to a wide array of 3D printing technologies and their capabilities to develop a skill in choosing optimal 3D printing tools for a given type of prototype. Learners who complete this specialization will obtain a rich understanding of the key roles of prototyping in engineering and product development processes, and how to use various types of 3D printing technologies for the right applications in prototyping.\n\nYou can see an overview of the specialization from Dr. Hsu here...
5. Creative Design, Prototyping, and Testing
Designing the customer and user experience is essential to creating great products today. Gone is the old paradigm of “form follows function” model of design. The process must be iterative and follow the best product design and development processes. While designing a great user experience can be a lengthy and expensive process, there are approaches to doing it faster and smarter, without compromising results. This essential product management course explains key design thinking principles around personas, story mapping, and prototyping. Product managers need to know and appreciate product designer tools and processes. By combining these principles with good scrum processes, you’ll learn to create great products that don’t sacrifice design for functionality or feasibility. This course enables students to transition from ideas to prototyping and concept testing of their products and services. Students learn how best to effectively translate ideas into marketable offerings so that the best product and service ideas are harnessed and create real value for customers and the organization. Emphasis is placed on an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to engineering design, concurrent engineering, design for manufacturing, industrial design, and the business of new product development. Topics include design methods, modeling and simulation, material and manufacturing process selection, platform and modular design, mass customization, planning and scheduling...
6. Adding Electronics to Rapid Prototypes
Hello, everyone! Welcome to this course on Adding Electronics to Rapid Prototypes. This is part of the Rapid Prototyping and Tooling specialization. In this course, I’ll cover the basics of electric circuits, breadboards, and multimeters. I’ll then discuss different options for connecting electrical components as well as discuss different types of motors and actuators. Finally, I’ll end this course by discussing microcontrollers and how to use them to make even more sophisticated prototypes. By exploring both electrical simulations and many examples from different robotics projects I’ve had the opportunity to work on, by the end of this course, you should have a better understanding of the basics of electronics and how to add them to your designs to create high-quality prototypes. We have a lot of great content to cover, so without further ado, let’s dive into the world of rapid prototyping!...
7. Interactive Prototypes with Framer
This course is built for Framer Studio (Classics), NOT the latest version of Framer (X). I'm still using Studio for many of my projects as X requires more on the code side (React) and is in it's early version right now. That being said I'm working on the X course, however I do recommend to get to know Studio, too. Let me present to you one of the hottest technologies for interface prototyping, used extensively by such companies as Facebook, Google, Uber. You have to see for yourself how powerful of a tool it is. The best, most sought after UI/UX designers on the market, know programming! This course will prove to you that working with CoffeScript is one of the best, most pleasant ways to learn programming, and also one of the most interesting skills to master! What you'll learn?CoffeeScript - the basicsPractical examplesWorking with componentsSketch and Figma integrationApple Watch PrototypeBonus UI Kit for iOSThis course is a practical compendium of knowledge on prototyping animations and micro interactions with the use of Framer technology. The application, created by Facebook engineers allows prototyping with no restrictions of a timeline or predefined presets. It lets you prepare finished animations for website, iOS/Android app, game, TV and so much more! This course will show you, using a set of practical examples, how to design typical mobile app UI transitions. In order to create them, we are going to make use of a range of in-built components, which simplify the design of user onboarding and app page animations to just a few lines of code - Framer does all the rest! The course you are about to participate in is the doorway to a world of extremely valuable skills for UI/UX designers, who want to be competitive on the market. Invest in your professional development and you will appreciate how well designing interactive prototypes, micro interactions and animations which you can transfer to a website or an app with Framer technology, present themselves in your portfolio. It is a step in the right direction if you would like to design your own, complete applications with a friendly visual feedback, in the future...
8. UI Prototyping in Flinto
Prototyping with Flinto is one of the most essential skills for the best UI/UX designers. The software allows its user to create transitions and micro interactions which very precisely showcase the project's functionality. You are able to perfectly reflect the workings of an app before its final implementation or project presentation. Working with Flinto gives you an unprecedented level of control over every single aspect of the project, and this course is all you need to start your Flinto experience! The first part of the course includes a practical example to help you become familiar with all the important concepts of how Flinto operates, functions and tools. We are going to design an effective mockup of an application interface and discover the potential of Flinto. The latter half of the course involves practical application of Flinto functions in order to design all the transitions and animations for our intelligent home app. This project will prove how useful Flinto is, because it is entire possible to create even the most complex element of an app using this software. Another great functionality of Flinto comes from its capability to connect layers via transitions. This function lets us design animations where one layer smoothly transitions from one screen to another or even create shape animations, which simply morph one into another...
9. UX Design: Create a Prototype
In this class youll be going through a typical UX design process that will end with a prototype to present to clients! Youll learn how to approach an idea from a UX Designers perspective and incorporate design thinking into each stage of a project...
10. Rapid IOT Prototyping in Protopie
In this class we will go over how to create a simple IOT prototype with Protopie. Along the way well learn the basics of protopie & how to effectively use this method of prototyping to get better user feedback earlier...
11. Principle App - UI Prototyping
Prototyping with Flinto is one of the most essential skills for the best UI/UX designers. The software allows its user to create transitions and micro interactions which very precisely showcase the project's functionality. You are able to perfectly reflect the workings of an app before its final implementation or project presentation. Working with Flinto gives you an unprecedented level of control over every single aspect of the project, and this course is all you need to start your Flinto experience! You will find two practical projects, in the course. The first one is a simple application mockup to help you become familiar with all the functions and tools of the Flinto app, including: transitions, behaviors, gestures, easing, and more advanced animations. In comparison with other prototyping tools, Flinto distinguishes itself by its wide array of unique capabilities, useful while creating micro interactions and animations. Behaviors, for example, allow the use of reusable components in the project, and save the designer a lot of time. We also discuss interactive capabilities of Flinto, including its cooperation with Sketch. With a special plug-in, you will be able to export your finished project to Flinto, and contrary to other apps, manage the whole structure of editable layers, as well as vectors!...
12. Principle - Realistic Animations & Prototypes
Learn how to create prototypes the look & feel like real applications. I will walk you through the Principle user interface and animation features, after that we will develop 2 different prototypes together. The YummyYucky food taste app and the Moviegoer app which helps people finding movies to watch. Knowledge in Sketch App is a nice to have, but not required for this course. I hope you are as excited as I am to start this journey. Let's get started...
13. Mobile App Prototyping: Designing Custom Interactions
Have a great idea for an app and unsure where to start? Join Product Designer Noah Levin for an informative 50-minute class on how to use mobile app prototyping to communicate your ideas and execute your vision. In this class youll learn the basics of using mobile app prototyping to pioneer new patterns make unique designs and find unexpected solutions. You’ll leave this class with 3 new interactions to incorporate into your mobile app designs including animating an image screen transition and a to-do app action. Along the way youll also pick up some coding basics giving you a solid foundation for making your designs happen. If youre an app designer looking for a new way to prototype or simply looking to understand how your favorite apps come to life this class will have you iterating and executing designs to get the most out of what you make. Note: This class is recommended for those with a basic familiarity of mobile app design. If youre brand-new to prototyping or mobile app design check out Intro to Mobile App Design on Skillshare. ____________ Framer is a prototyping tool for animation and interaction on desktop and mobile...
14. Introduction to Prototyping in Axure 9
This class will teach those new to Axure how to use its core functionality to prototype a moderately interactive website at high visual and functional fidelity:...
15. Create a High-Fidelity Prototype with Figma
In this 1 hour guided project, you will first learn the fundamental principles of high-fidelity prototyping. Then you will learn the basic techniques of using Figma to create a high-fidelity prototype for a pizza restaurant mobile application. High-fidelity prototypes closely resemble the final product and give users and developers a real taste of how the features work. Finally you will learn how to share your work with team members and clients to refine your design with them. Prior knowledge with basic mobile application user interface is recommended. An account with Figma is required for this project. If you do not already have an account. You can create a free account with Figma. To make your learning experience smoother, please do so prior to starting the project...
16. Adobe XD: App Design & Prototyping for Beginners
In this class well be creating a News App from scratch. Well be going over the basics of Adobe XD as well as learning how to work with images create icons buttons & prototypes. Ill also be sharing a plugin I use in my day to day work that easily DOUBLES my design speed so this class will be valuable for any skill level. See below for some examples of what well be creating...
17. Board Game Design 101: Prototyping and Playtesting
Welcome to the final class in the Board Game Design 101 series. In this class Ill be helping you make your first prototype and guide you through the process of playtesting your game...
18. Prototype Smarter: Creating a Sketch Symbol Library
Many designers have picked up Sketch in the last few years as the tool of choice for designing websites and apps. In this class you will learn how to take your sketch prototyping to the next level. Ill take you through how to create a library full of reusable symbols that can be used across projects and team members. As more and more organizations move towards using design systems sketch symbol libraries are an easy way to align coded components with prototyping components. Whether you are a team of 1 or a team of many symbol libraries will make your design workflow a whole lot more efficient...
19. A UX Guide to Learning through Prototyping
Prototyping is a useful strategy to design for impactful connection with your target audience whether you’re designing products services or experiences. It’s a scrappy process that provides early and ongoing opportunities to test hypotheses and solicit input from others...
20. Design a Remote Sprint to Test Prototypes in Miro
By the end of this project, you will be able to design and build a remote 5-day sprint to develop and test prototypes. As you work through your project, you will understand how this process helps teams efficiently and effectively deliver products with high levels of user acceptance. To do this, you will gain hands-on experience applying agile thinking to place the right people on a cross-functional team, assign roles, and create a roadmap for prototype development and testing success, and visualize the sprint in the Miro online visual collaboration platform for teamwork. Note: This course works best for learners who are based in the North America region. We’re currently working on providing the same experience in other regions...