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 16 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 233 230 232
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 -59
Contract jobs citing UX Design 450 363 444
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.21% 1.14% 1.04%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.38% 1.28% 1.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 319 225 298
10th Percentile £350 £313 £334
25th Percentile £400 £385 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £468 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.50% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £539 £575 £600
90th Percentile £606 £638 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £431 £500
% change year-on-year +4.35% -13.75% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 5 11
10th Percentile £27.62 £30.86 £50.00
25th Percentile £35.60 £31.50 £70.66
Median hourly rate £44.50 £33.54 £77.50
Median % change year-on-year +32.68% -56.72% +42.20%
75th Percentile £63.75 £53.75 £81.88
90th Percentile £70.13 £79.39 £82.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.60 £32.21 £77.50
% change year-on-year +10.53% -58.44% +38.39%

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 32,654 28,287 37,362
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.81% 88.79% 87.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,662 17,217 24,715
10th Percentile £304 £306 £304
25th Percentile £406 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,980 898 1,602
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.75 £18.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -19.75% +16.41%
75th Percentile £56.06 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.80 £74.91 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.45 £43.83
% change year-on-year -21.76% -30.52% +51.12%

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 16 January 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 16 January 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 16 January 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 -6 367 £460 -8.00% 167
London -4 212 £475 -9.52% 68
UK excluding London +11 178 £450 +4.35% 129
Work from Home -26 123 £460 +2.22% 91
North of England -14 63 £400 -0.12% 25
North West +4 39 £388 +1.31% 13
Midlands -20 37 £425 +19.38% 19
Scotland +7 31 £484 +12.23% 4
West Midlands -14 31 £425 -24.44% 11
South East -26 18 £525 +16.67% 51
Yorkshire -44 18 £500 +5.26% 8
South West -5 15 £450 +63.64% 10
East of England -17 8 £460 +2.22% 14
Wales +6 7 £450 +5.88% 6
North East -8 6 £369 - 4
East Midlands -25 6 £455 +27.81% 8
Northern Ireland -5 1 £625 +16.28% 1

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 (4.00%) CMS
1 18 (4.00%) Confluence
2 8 (1.78%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.33%) SugarCRM
4 3 (0.67%) Jupyter
5 2 (0.44%) Appian
5 2 (0.44%) Headless CMS
5 2 (0.44%) Sitecore CMS
5 2 (0.44%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.22%) Cloud Foundry
6 1 (0.22%) Drupal
6 1 (0.22%) WordPress
Applications
1 47 (10.44%) Sketch
2 32 (7.11%) Adobe XD
3 14 (3.11%) InVision
4 10 (2.22%) Chatbot
5 6 (1.33%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 5 (1.11%) Adobe Illustrator
7 4 (0.89%) Adobe After Effects
7 4 (0.89%) Photoshop
8 3 (0.67%) Microsoft Excel
8 3 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
8 3 (0.67%) MS Visio
9 2 (0.44%) Blender
9 2 (0.44%) CINEMA 4D
9 2 (0.44%) InDesign
9 2 (0.44%) OmniGraffle
9 2 (0.44%) Trello
9 2 (0.44%) Zeplin
10 1 (0.22%) Camtasia
10 1 (0.22%) Marvel
10 1 (0.22%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 4 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.22%) Maximo
3 1 (0.22%) SAP CO
3 1 (0.22%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 131 (29.11%) Figma
2 58 (12.89%) Azure
3 54 (12.00%) AWS
4 32 (7.11%) SaaS
5 20 (4.44%) Miro
6 18 (4.00%) GCP
7 15 (3.33%) Power Platform
8 13 (2.89%) GitHub
9 11 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (2.22%) GitHub Actions
11 6 (1.33%) Microsoft 365
11 6 (1.33%) Serverless
12 5 (1.11%) Firebase
12 5 (1.11%) PaaS
12 5 (1.11%) PowerApps
13 4 (0.89%) Adobe Creative Cloud
13 4 (0.89%) AWS Lambda
13 4 (0.89%) Contentful
13 4 (0.89%) Entra ID
13 4 (0.89%) Google Gemini
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.11%) Internet
2 3 (0.67%) HTTP
3 2 (0.44%) Intranet
4 1 (0.22%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.22%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.67%) NoSQL
2 10 (2.22%) MySQL
3 9 (2.00%) SQL Server
4 8 (1.78%) Power BI
5 7 (1.56%) MongoDB
5 7 (1.56%) Relational Database
6 5 (1.11%) Mixpanel
6 5 (1.11%) PostgreSQL
7 4 (0.89%) DynamoDB
8 2 (0.44%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.44%) CockroachDB
8 2 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.44%) Metadata
8 2 (0.44%) Pinecone
9 1 (0.22%) Amazon Aurora
9 1 (0.22%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.22%) SAP BW
9 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 51 (11.33%) Git
2 36 (8.00%) JIRA
3 21 (4.67%) Axure RP
4 17 (3.78%) Cypress.io
5 15 (3.33%) GitLab
5 15 (3.33%) Jenkins
6 11 (2.44%) JUnit
7 9 (2.00%) CircleCI
8 7 (1.56%) Gradle
9 6 (1.33%) Xcode
10 5 (1.11%) Visual Studio
10 5 (1.11%) Visual Website Optimizer
11 4 (0.89%) Android Studio
11 4 (0.89%) Eclipse
11 4 (0.89%) Mocha
12 3 (0.67%) Balsamiq
12 3 (0.67%) Lerna
13 2 (0.44%) Selenium
13 2 (0.44%) Snyk
13 2 (0.44%) SonarQube
General
1 150 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 101 (22.44%) Finance
3 69 (15.33%) Public Sector
4 56 (12.44%) Banking
5 40 (8.89%) Analytical Skills
6 32 (7.11%) Marketing
7 13 (2.89%) Influencing Skills
8 12 (2.67%) Financial Institution
9 10 (2.22%) Legal
9 10 (2.22%) Presentation Skills
10 9 (2.00%) Pharmaceutical
11 8 (1.78%) Retail
12 7 (1.56%) Automotive
13 6 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (0.89%) Local Government
14 4 (0.89%) Publishing
15 3 (0.67%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.67%) Investment Banking
15 3 (0.67%) Organisational Skills
15 3 (0.67%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 183 (40.67%) Designer
2 127 (28.22%) UX Designer
3 89 (19.78%) Developer
4 78 (17.33%) Senior
5 37 (8.22%) Senior Designer
6 33 (7.33%) Service Designer
7 31 (6.89%) UI Designer
8 29 (6.44%) Lead
9 26 (5.78%) Senior UX Designer
10 24 (5.33%) UI/UX Designer
11 23 (5.11%) Product Designer
12 22 (4.89%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
13 21 (4.67%) User Researcher
14 15 (3.33%) Business Analyst
15 14 (3.11%) Analyst
16 13 (2.89%) Full-Stack Developer
16 13 (2.89%) Senior Developer
17 12 (2.67%) Content Designer
17 12 (2.67%) UX Service Designer
18 11 (2.44%) React Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (18.44%) CSS
1 83 (18.44%) HTML
2 70 (15.56%) React
3 49 (10.89%) RESTful
4 32 (7.11%) HTML5
5 30 (6.67%) REST
6 29 (6.44%) AngularJS
7 25 (5.56%) CSS3
8 23 (5.11%) Node.js
9 22 (4.89%) Spring
10 20 (4.44%) .NET
11 19 (4.22%) Jest
11 19 (4.22%) Spring Boot
12 17 (3.78%) Playwright
13 16 (3.56%) Next.js
14 14 (3.11%) Redux
15 12 (2.67%) GraphQL
16 10 (2.22%) jQuery
16 10 (2.22%) OAuth
16 10 (2.22%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 48 (10.67%) Product Ownership
2 40 (8.89%) Mobile App
3 25 (5.56%) Onboarding
4 11 (2.44%) Low-Code
4 11 (2.44%) Virtual Team
5 10 (2.22%) NHS
6 9 (2.00%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (1.33%) Cloud Native
7 6 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
7 6 (1.33%) Mobile Banking
7 6 (1.33%) W3C
8 5 (1.11%) Digital Media
8 5 (1.11%) Digital Wallet
8 5 (1.11%) RIA
9 4 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (0.89%) Data Structures
9 4 (0.89%) e-Learning
9 4 (0.89%) Graphic Design
9 4 (0.89%) Learning Management System
Operating Systems
1 17 (3.78%) Android
1 17 (3.78%) Apple iOS
2 5 (1.11%) Windows
3 4 (0.89%) Linux
4 3 (0.67%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.44%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.22%) VMS
6 1 (0.22%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 450 (100.00%) User Experience
2 209 (46.44%) Agile
3 121 (26.89%) User Research
4 99 (22.00%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 87 (19.33%) Usability Testing
6 81 (18.00%) Problem-Solving
7 80 (17.78%) Service Design
7 80 (17.78%) Wireframes
8 76 (16.89%) Prototyping
9 74 (16.44%) CI/CD
10 64 (14.22%) Front End Development
11 61 (13.56%) Analytics
12 54 (12.00%) UX Research
13 51 (11.33%) Interaction Design
14 48 (10.67%) DevOps
15 47 (10.44%) Workshop Facilitation
16 43 (9.56%) Continuous Improvement
17 41 (9.11%) AI
17 41 (9.11%) Journey Map
18 40 (8.89%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 84 (18.67%) JavaScript
2 48 (10.67%) TypeScript
3 47 (10.44%) Java
4 21 (4.67%) SQL
5 18 (4.00%) Python
6 15 (3.33%) C#
7 13 (2.89%) Kotlin
8 12 (2.67%) Swift
9 8 (1.78%) Objective-C
10 7 (1.56%) PHP
11 5 (1.11%) Ruby
11 5 (1.11%) Scala
12 4 (0.89%) C++
13 3 (0.67%) C
14 2 (0.44%) Bash
14 2 (0.44%) COBOL
14 2 (0.44%) Groovy
14 2 (0.44%) PL/SQL
15 1 (0.22%) Apex Code
15 1 (0.22%) BeanShell
Qualifications
1 50 (11.11%) Degree
2 36 (8.00%) Security Cleared
3 19 (4.22%) SC Cleared
4 14 (3.11%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.11%) Master's Degree
7 4 (0.89%) MCP
8 3 (0.67%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.44%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.22%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.22%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.22%) CCA
10 1 (0.22%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 133 (29.56%) Accessibility
2 43 (9.56%) WCAG
3 40 (8.89%) QA
4 12 (2.67%) GDPR
5 8 (1.78%) Actionable Recommendations
6 5 (1.11%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 4 (0.89%) Data Quality
7 4 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.22%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 33 (7.33%) Docker
2 3 (0.67%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.22%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 20 (4.44%) Kubernetes
2 14 (3.11%) Terraform
3 6 (1.33%) Ansible
3 6 (1.33%) Grafana
4 3 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (0.44%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 1 (0.22%) Consul
6 1 (0.22%) HP ALM
6 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.22%) Podman
6 1 (0.22%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.22%) SCCM
Vendors
1 48 (10.67%) Adobe
2 37 (8.22%) Microsoft
3 21 (4.67%) Google
4 16 (3.56%) Salesforce
5 8 (1.78%) ServiceNow
6 7 (1.56%) Optimizely
6 7 (1.56%) Oracle
6 7 (1.56%) SAP
7 6 (1.33%) Hopewiser
7 6 (1.33%) Hotjar
8 5 (1.11%) Amplitude
8 5 (1.11%) Apple
8 5 (1.11%) MuleSoft
8 5 (1.11%) OutSystems
9 3 (0.67%) Dataiku
9 3 (0.67%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.44%) HP
10 2 (0.44%) OneTrust
10 2 (0.44%) Palantir
10 2 (0.44%) Sitecore