UX Design Contract Job Trends

User Experience Design (UXD)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring UX Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 256 210 209
Rank change year-on-year -46 -1 -33
Contract jobs citing UX Design 477 382 499
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.01% 1.31% 1.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.19% 1.44% 1.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 343 271 353
10th Percentile £363 £313 £350
25th Percentile £400 £400 £402
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £575 £550 £623
90th Percentile £650 £650 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £456
% change year-on-year +11.76% -6.85% -3.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 3 8
10th Percentile £25.10 £53.97 £30.17
25th Percentile £26.77 £65.54 £31.71
Median hourly rate £36.30 £91.69 £41.68
Median % change year-on-year -60.42% +120.01% -12.26%
75th Percentile £55.37 £97.52 £75.94
90th Percentile £66.50 £98.14 £88.61
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.09 £91.69 £91.44
% change year-on-year -69.36% +0.28% +53.45%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

UX Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 39,921 26,554 37,629
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.61% 90.86% 86.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,152 17,143 24,256
10th Percentile £319 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £521 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.03% -0.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £483 £500
% change year-on-year +1.04% -3.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,393 1,068 2,439
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.81 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £41.56 £29.07 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.95% -16.94% -6.17%
75th Percentile £66.00 £62.24 £59.95
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.71 £28.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.52% -23.29% +1.39%

UX Design
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing UX Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

UX Design job vacancy trend in the UK

UX Design
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing UX Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing UX Design

UX Design
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing UX Design over the 6 months to 30 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for UX Design in the UK

UX Design
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing UX Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing UX Design

UX Design
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing UX Design over the 6 months to 30 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for UX Design in the UK

UX Design
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing UX Design within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -34 396 £475 - 123
London -22 231 £500 - 49
UK excluding London -35 175 £475 +11.76% 96
Work from Home -52 121 £450 +2.27% 71
North of England -35 61 £402 +0.50% 25
North West -8 40 £401 +0.25% 17
Midlands -46 33 £523 +46.77% 22
South West -17 29 £475 +18.75% 7
West Midlands -39 25 £425 +4.94% 18
Scotland -7 22 £538 +26.47% 5
South East -54 22 £475 +11.76% 29
Yorkshire -51 14 £513 +10.75% 3
East Midlands -25 8 £575 +61.52% 4
North East -12 7 £364 -6.06% 5
East of England -39 5 £460 -3.66% 7
Wales - 5 £450 - 3
Northern Ireland +3 1 - - 2

UX Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 19 (3.98%) Confluence
2 15 (3.14%) CMS
3 5 (1.05%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.84%) Headless CMS
5 3 (0.63%) WordPress
6 2 (0.42%) Appian
6 2 (0.42%) Kentico
6 2 (0.42%) Sitecore CMS
6 2 (0.42%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.21%) Camunda
7 1 (0.21%) Cloud Foundry
7 1 (0.21%) Drupal
7 1 (0.21%) Mendix
7 1 (0.21%) Moodle
7 1 (0.21%) nginx
7 1 (0.21%) Strapi
7 1 (0.21%) Traefik
Applications
1 35 (7.34%) Sketch
2 28 (5.87%) Adobe XD
3 12 (2.52%) Chatbot
4 11 (2.31%) InVision
5 8 (1.68%) Photoshop
6 7 (1.47%) Adobe After Effects
7 6 (1.26%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
8 3 (0.63%) MS Visio
8 3 (0.63%) Trello
9 2 (0.42%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 2 (0.42%) Microsoft Office
9 2 (0.42%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.21%) Blender
10 1 (0.21%) Camtasia
10 1 (0.21%) CINEMA 4D
10 1 (0.21%) InDesign
10 1 (0.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 1 (0.21%) OmniGraffle
10 1 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.05%) Shopify
2 2 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.21%) Eloqua
3 1 (0.21%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.21%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 152 (31.87%) Figma
2 51 (10.69%) Azure
3 33 (6.92%) AWS
4 18 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
5 15 (3.14%) Power Platform
6 14 (2.94%) SaaS
7 10 (2.10%) GitHub
7 10 (2.10%) GitHub Actions
7 10 (2.10%) Miro
8 7 (1.47%) GCP
9 6 (1.26%) AWS CloudFormation
9 6 (1.26%) Serverless
10 5 (1.05%) AWS Lambda
10 5 (1.05%) Slack
11 4 (0.84%) Amazon S3
11 4 (0.84%) BigCommerce
12 3 (0.63%) CloudFront
12 3 (0.63%) IaaS
12 3 (0.63%) PaaS
12 3 (0.63%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.42%) HTTP
2 1 (0.21%) Internet
2 1 (0.21%) Intranet
2 1 (0.21%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.47%) NoSQL
1 7 (1.47%) Power BI
1 7 (1.47%) SQL Server
2 5 (1.05%) MongoDB
2 5 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (0.63%) Elasticsearch
3 3 (0.63%) Pinecone
3 3 (0.63%) Power Query
3 3 (0.63%) Relational Database
4 2 (0.42%) CockroachDB
4 2 (0.42%) Metadata
5 1 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.21%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.21%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.21%) DynamoDB
5 1 (0.21%) MySQL
5 1 (0.21%) Redis
5 1 (0.21%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.21%) SQLite
5 1 (0.21%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 34 (7.13%) Git
2 33 (6.92%) JIRA
3 22 (4.61%) Cypress.io
4 15 (3.14%) Axure RP
5 13 (2.73%) GitLab
6 9 (1.89%) CircleCI
7 8 (1.68%) JUnit
8 7 (1.47%) Jenkins
9 6 (1.26%) Mocha
10 5 (1.05%) Visual Studio
11 4 (0.84%) Selenium
11 4 (0.84%) Vite
12 3 (0.63%) Gradle
13 2 (0.42%) Android Studio
13 2 (0.42%) Balsamiq
13 2 (0.42%) Crashlytics
13 2 (0.42%) fastlane
13 2 (0.42%) REST Assured
13 2 (0.42%) Storybook
13 2 (0.42%) webpack
General
1 141 (29.56%) Social Skills
2 94 (19.71%) Public Sector
3 82 (17.19%) Finance
4 60 (12.58%) Banking
5 31 (6.50%) Analytical Skills
6 19 (3.98%) Presentation Skills
7 18 (3.77%) Retail
8 17 (3.56%) Marketing
9 10 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (2.10%) Pharmaceutical
10 8 (1.68%) Legal
10 8 (1.68%) Publishing
11 7 (1.47%) Automotive
11 7 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.26%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.26%) Games
13 5 (1.05%) Local Government
14 4 (0.84%) Advertising
14 4 (0.84%) Retail Banking
15 3 (0.63%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 237 (49.69%) Designer
2 137 (28.72%) UX Designer
3 78 (16.35%) Senior
4 63 (13.21%) Developer
5 46 (9.64%) UI Designer
6 39 (8.18%) Content Designer
6 39 (8.18%) Senior Designer
7 37 (7.76%) UI/UX Designer
8 35 (7.34%) Service Designer
9 33 (6.92%) Product Designer
10 30 (6.29%) Senior UX Designer
11 28 (5.87%) Lead
11 28 (5.87%) User Researcher
12 19 (3.98%) Analyst
13 16 (3.35%) Architect
14 15 (3.14%) Full-Stack Developer
15 14 (2.94%) Business Analyst
15 14 (2.94%) React Developer
16 13 (2.73%) Consultant
17 12 (2.52%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (15.09%) React
2 59 (12.37%) CSS
2 59 (12.37%) HTML
3 41 (8.60%) RESTful
4 28 (5.87%) HTML5
5 27 (5.66%) AngularJS
5 27 (5.66%) CSS3
6 24 (5.03%) .NET
7 19 (3.98%) REST
8 18 (3.77%) Node.js
9 17 (3.56%) Jest
10 15 (3.14%) Redux
10 15 (3.14%) Spring
11 14 (2.94%) Spring Boot
12 11 (2.31%) Next.js
12 11 (2.31%) OAuth
12 11 (2.31%) Playwright
13 10 (2.10%) GraphQL
13 10 (2.10%) JSON
14 9 (1.89%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 49 (10.27%) Product Ownership
2 34 (7.13%) Mobile App
3 12 (2.52%) Onboarding
4 9 (1.89%) Animation
4 9 (1.89%) Cloud Native
5 8 (1.68%) Data Protection Act
5 8 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (1.47%) Graphic Design
6 7 (1.47%) Virtual Reality
7 6 (1.26%) Greenfield Project
7 6 (1.26%) NHS
7 6 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (1.26%) Virtual Team
8 5 (1.05%) Augmented Reality
8 5 (1.05%) Data Structures
8 5 (1.05%) Digital Wallet
8 5 (1.05%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (0.84%) Low-Code
9 4 (0.84%) Taxonomies
9 4 (0.84%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.68%) Android
2 5 (1.05%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.21%) Linux
3 1 (0.21%) Windows
3 1 (0.21%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 477 (100.00%) User Experience
2 209 (43.82%) Agile
3 142 (29.77%) User Research
4 101 (21.17%) Prototyping
5 91 (19.08%) Service Design
6 90 (18.87%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
7 89 (18.66%) Wireframes
8 86 (18.03%) Usability Testing
9 76 (15.93%) UX Research
10 67 (14.05%) Problem-Solving
11 66 (13.84%) AI
12 62 (13.00%) CI/CD
13 61 (12.79%) Interaction Design
14 52 (10.90%) Workshop Facilitation
15 49 (10.27%) Analytics
16 48 (10.06%) Stakeholder Management
17 47 (9.85%) Journey Map
18 46 (9.64%) DevOps
18 46 (9.64%) Front End Development
19 44 (9.22%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 65 (13.63%) JavaScript
2 47 (9.85%) TypeScript
3 27 (5.66%) Java
3 27 (5.66%) Python
4 19 (3.98%) C#
5 15 (3.14%) SQL
6 5 (1.05%) C++
6 5 (1.05%) Kotlin
6 5 (1.05%) Lua
7 4 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 4 (0.84%) Korn
8 2 (0.42%) Apex Code
8 2 (0.42%) Bicep
8 2 (0.42%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.21%) Gremlin
9 1 (0.21%) Scala
9 1 (0.21%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.21%) SPARQL
9 1 (0.21%) Swift
9 1 (0.21%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 68 (14.26%) Security Cleared
2 49 (10.27%) SC Cleared
3 47 (9.85%) Degree
4 13 (2.73%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (2.31%) Master's Degree
6 8 (1.68%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (0.63%) CCA
8 3 (0.63%) DBS Check
8 3 (0.63%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.42%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.42%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.21%) Citrix Certification
10 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 160 (33.54%) Accessibility
2 61 (12.79%) WCAG
3 33 (6.92%) QA
4 12 (2.52%) Actionable Recommendations
5 4 (0.84%) Data Quality
5 4 (0.84%) GDPR
6 3 (0.63%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.21%) EU AI Act
7 1 (0.21%) GMP
7 1 (0.21%) GxP
7 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 1 (0.21%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.21%) WAI
7 1 (0.21%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 20 (4.19%) Docker
2 1 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 16 (3.35%) Kubernetes
2 15 (3.14%) Terraform
3 2 (0.42%) Ansible
3 2 (0.42%) Grafana
3 2 (0.42%) HP ALM
3 2 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.21%) Podman
4 1 (0.21%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 43 (9.01%) Adobe
2 23 (4.82%) Salesforce
3 19 (3.98%) Microsoft
4 9 (1.89%) SAP
5 8 (1.68%) Google
6 6 (1.26%) MuleSoft
6 6 (1.26%) Sitecore
7 5 (1.05%) ServiceNow
8 3 (0.63%) Xamarin
9 2 (0.42%) Blue Prism
9 2 (0.42%) Databricks
9 2 (0.42%) Dynatrace
9 2 (0.42%) HP
9 2 (0.42%) OpenAI
9 2 (0.42%) Oracle
9 2 (0.42%) Progress
10 1 (0.21%) Automation Anywhere
10 1 (0.21%) OneTrust
10 1 (0.21%) Qualtrics
10 1 (0.21%) UiPath