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 28 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 250 206 212
Rank change year-on-year -44 +6 -34
Contract jobs citing UX Design 464 384 494
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.31% 1.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.17% 1.44% 1.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 336 274 349
10th Percentile £361 £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 £573 £550 £623
90th Percentile £638 £650 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £450
% change year-on-year +11.76% -5.56% -5.26%
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 39,735 26,655 37,382
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.58% 90.81% 86.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,044 17,231 24,097
10th Percentile £319 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.40% -0.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £631 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £485 £500
% change year-on-year - -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,400 1,068 2,424
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.84 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.98 £18.51 £16.00
Median hourly rate £40.25 £29.15 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.08% -16.71% -6.27%
75th Percentile £65.60 £62.24 £59.44
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.00 £28.00 £35.98
% change year-on-year +50.00% -22.17% -0.07%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -35 386 £475 - 203
London -29 226 £498 -0.50% 81
UK excluding London -35 169 £475 +11.76% 162
Work from Home -46 117 £450 +2.27% 95
North of England -38 59 £402 +0.50% 44
North West -4 40 £401 +12.48% 29
Midlands -45 31 £545 +53.09% 28
South West -23 28 £475 +18.75% 13
West Midlands -42 23 £425 +4.94% 18
South East -64 23 £500 +17.65% 41
Scotland -8 21 £550 +29.41% 10
Yorkshire -59 11 £513 +2.50% 8
North East -13 8 £364 -6.06% 7
East Midlands -33 8 £575 +61.52% 10
Wales - 5 £450 - 8
East of England -33 4 £435 -8.90% 18
Northern Ireland +5 1 - - 5

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 18 (3.88%) Confluence
2 13 (2.80%) CMS
3 5 (1.08%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.65%) Headless CMS
4 3 (0.65%) WordPress
5 2 (0.43%) Appian
5 2 (0.43%) Kentico
5 2 (0.43%) Sitecore CMS
5 2 (0.43%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.22%) Camunda
6 1 (0.22%) Cloud Foundry
6 1 (0.22%) Mendix
6 1 (0.22%) Moodle
6 1 (0.22%) nginx
6 1 (0.22%) Strapi
6 1 (0.22%) Traefik
Applications
1 35 (7.54%) Sketch
2 28 (6.03%) Adobe XD
3 12 (2.59%) Chatbot
4 11 (2.37%) InVision
5 7 (1.51%) Adobe After Effects
6 6 (1.29%) Photoshop
7 5 (1.08%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.65%) Microsoft Excel
8 3 (0.65%) MS Visio
8 3 (0.65%) Trello
9 2 (0.43%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 2 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
9 2 (0.43%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.22%) Blender
10 1 (0.22%) Camtasia
10 1 (0.22%) CINEMA 4D
10 1 (0.22%) InDesign
10 1 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 1 (0.22%) OmniGraffle
10 1 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.08%) Shopify
2 2 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.22%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.22%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 149 (32.11%) Figma
2 48 (10.34%) Azure
3 33 (7.11%) AWS
4 17 (3.66%) Azure DevOps
5 15 (3.23%) Power Platform
6 14 (3.02%) SaaS
7 10 (2.16%) GitHub
7 10 (2.16%) GitHub Actions
7 10 (2.16%) Miro
8 7 (1.51%) GCP
9 6 (1.29%) Serverless
10 5 (1.08%) AWS Lambda
10 5 (1.08%) Slack
11 4 (0.86%) Amazon S3
11 4 (0.86%) AWS CloudFormation
11 4 (0.86%) BigCommerce
12 3 (0.65%) Amazon Bedrock
12 3 (0.65%) Anthropic Claude
12 3 (0.65%) IaaS
12 3 (0.65%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.43%) HTTP
2 1 (0.22%) Internet
2 1 (0.22%) Intranet
2 1 (0.22%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.72%) NoSQL
2 7 (1.51%) Power BI
3 6 (1.29%) SQL Server
4 5 (1.08%) MongoDB
4 5 (1.08%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
5 3 (0.65%) Pinecone
5 3 (0.65%) Power Query
6 2 (0.43%) CockroachDB
6 2 (0.43%) DynamoDB
6 2 (0.43%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.22%) Metadata
7 1 (0.22%) MySQL
7 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.22%) SQLite
7 1 (0.22%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 32 (6.90%) JIRA
2 29 (6.25%) Git
3 21 (4.53%) Cypress.io
4 15 (3.23%) Axure RP
5 14 (3.02%) GitLab
6 9 (1.94%) CircleCI
6 9 (1.94%) Jenkins
6 9 (1.94%) JUnit
7 6 (1.29%) Mocha
8 5 (1.08%) Visual Studio
9 4 (0.86%) Selenium
9 4 (0.86%) Vite
10 3 (0.65%) Gradle
11 2 (0.43%) Android Studio
11 2 (0.43%) Balsamiq
11 2 (0.43%) Crashlytics
11 2 (0.43%) fastlane
11 2 (0.43%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.43%) TestRail
11 2 (0.43%) webpack
General
1 139 (29.96%) Social Skills
2 94 (20.26%) Public Sector
3 82 (17.67%) Finance
4 58 (12.50%) Banking
5 30 (6.47%) Analytical Skills
6 18 (3.88%) Presentation Skills
6 18 (3.88%) Retail
7 16 (3.45%) Marketing
8 11 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (2.16%) Pharmaceutical
10 8 (1.72%) Legal
11 7 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.29%) Automotive
12 6 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.29%) Games
12 6 (1.29%) Publishing
13 5 (1.08%) Local Government
14 4 (0.86%) Advertising
14 4 (0.86%) Retail Banking
15 3 (0.65%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 232 (50.00%) Designer
2 133 (28.66%) UX Designer
3 70 (15.09%) Senior
4 60 (12.93%) Developer
5 45 (9.70%) UI Designer
6 38 (8.19%) Senior Designer
7 37 (7.97%) Content Designer
8 36 (7.76%) UI/UX Designer
9 35 (7.54%) Service Designer
10 33 (7.11%) Product Designer
11 29 (6.25%) Senior UX Designer
12 28 (6.03%) User Researcher
13 24 (5.17%) Lead
14 18 (3.88%) Analyst
15 16 (3.45%) Architect
16 14 (3.02%) Full-Stack Developer
17 13 (2.80%) Business Analyst
17 13 (2.80%) React Developer
18 11 (2.37%) Consultant
18 11 (2.37%) User Experience Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (14.66%) React
2 57 (12.28%) CSS
2 57 (12.28%) HTML
3 38 (8.19%) RESTful
4 27 (5.82%) HTML5
5 26 (5.60%) AngularJS
6 25 (5.39%) CSS3
7 24 (5.17%) .NET
8 18 (3.88%) REST
9 17 (3.66%) Node.js
9 17 (3.66%) Spring
10 16 (3.45%) Jest
10 16 (3.45%) Spring Boot
11 14 (3.02%) Redux
12 11 (2.37%) Next.js
12 11 (2.37%) Playwright
13 9 (1.94%) GraphQL
13 9 (1.94%) JSON
14 8 (1.72%) OAuth
15 7 (1.51%) Unity (Game Engine)
Miscellaneous
1 47 (10.13%) Product Ownership
2 33 (7.11%) Mobile App
3 12 (2.59%) Onboarding
4 9 (1.94%) Animation
4 9 (1.94%) Cloud Native
5 8 (1.72%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (1.51%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.29%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (1.29%) Graphic Design
7 6 (1.29%) NHS
7 6 (1.29%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (1.29%) Virtual Reality
7 6 (1.29%) Virtual Team
8 5 (1.08%) Augmented Reality
8 5 (1.08%) Data Structures
8 5 (1.08%) Digital Wallet
8 5 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
9 4 (0.86%) Low-Code
9 4 (0.86%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 3 (0.65%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.72%) Android
2 5 (1.08%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.22%) Windows
3 1 (0.22%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 464 (100.00%) User Experience
2 204 (43.97%) Agile
3 140 (30.17%) User Research
4 100 (21.55%) Prototyping
5 90 (19.40%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
6 89 (19.18%) Service Design
7 88 (18.97%) Wireframes
8 84 (18.10%) Usability Testing
9 73 (15.73%) UX Research
10 67 (14.44%) Problem-Solving
11 65 (14.01%) AI
12 61 (13.15%) Interaction Design
13 60 (12.93%) CI/CD
14 52 (11.21%) Workshop Facilitation
15 48 (10.34%) Stakeholder Management
16 47 (10.13%) Analytics
17 46 (9.91%) DevOps
17 46 (9.91%) Journey Map
18 45 (9.70%) Front End Development
19 44 (9.48%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 62 (13.36%) JavaScript
2 45 (9.70%) TypeScript
3 28 (6.03%) Java
4 24 (5.17%) Python
5 19 (4.09%) C#
6 13 (2.80%) SQL
7 5 (1.08%) C++
7 5 (1.08%) Kotlin
7 5 (1.08%) Lua
8 4 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 4 (0.86%) Korn
9 2 (0.43%) Apex Code
9 2 (0.43%) PowerShell
10 1 (0.22%) Gremlin
10 1 (0.22%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.22%) Scala
10 1 (0.22%) SPARQL
10 1 (0.22%) Swift
10 1 (0.22%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 66 (14.22%) Security Cleared
2 48 (10.34%) SC Cleared
3 46 (9.91%) Degree
4 13 (2.80%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (2.16%) Master's Degree
6 7 (1.51%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (0.65%) DBS Check
8 3 (0.65%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.43%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.43%) CCA
9 2 (0.43%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.22%) Citrix Certification
10 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 154 (33.19%) Accessibility
2 58 (12.50%) WCAG
3 33 (7.11%) QA
4 11 (2.37%) Actionable Recommendations
5 4 (0.86%) Data Quality
5 4 (0.86%) GDPR
6 3 (0.65%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.22%) EU AI Act
7 1 (0.22%) GMP
7 1 (0.22%) GxP
7 1 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 1 (0.22%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 19 (4.09%) Docker
2 1 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 15 (3.23%) Kubernetes
2 13 (2.80%) Terraform
3 2 (0.43%) Ansible
3 2 (0.43%) Grafana
3 2 (0.43%) HP ALM
3 2 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.22%) Podman
4 1 (0.22%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 42 (9.05%) Adobe
2 23 (4.96%) Salesforce
3 18 (3.88%) Microsoft
4 9 (1.94%) SAP
5 8 (1.72%) Google
6 6 (1.29%) MuleSoft
6 6 (1.29%) Sitecore
7 4 (0.86%) ServiceNow
8 3 (0.65%) Oracle
8 3 (0.65%) Xamarin
9 2 (0.43%) Blue Prism
9 2 (0.43%) Databricks
9 2 (0.43%) Dynatrace
9 2 (0.43%) HP
9 2 (0.43%) OpenAI
10 1 (0.22%) Automation Anywhere
10 1 (0.22%) OneTrust
10 1 (0.22%) Optimizely
10 1 (0.22%) Qualtrics
10 1 (0.22%) UiPath