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 27 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 243 204 208
Rank change year-on-year -39 +4 -33
Contract jobs citing UX Design 502 380 485
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.03% 1.33% 1.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.22% 1.46% 1.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 347 266 343
10th Percentile £363 £324 £350
25th Percentile £402 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £575 £550 £611
90th Percentile £650 £644 £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 12 5 6
10th Percentile £20.58 £39.35 £29.14
25th Percentile £25.25 £45.50 £34.16
Median hourly rate £31.04 £49.00 £41.68
Median % change year-on-year -36.65% +17.58% -14.95%
75th Percentile £55.37 £96.49 £72.33
90th Percentile £69.50 £97.73 £92.69
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.67 £70.35 £91.44
% change year-on-year -60.67% -23.07% +46.30%

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 41,181 26,010 36,599
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.50% 91.03% 85.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,765 16,696 23,578
10th Percentile £325 £303 £300
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £512 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.14% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,462 1,066 2,486
10th Percentile £14.68 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.73 £17.92 £16.00
Median hourly rate £41.94 £27.45 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year +52.79% -23.80% -2.64%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.05 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.69 £25.15 £37.75
% change year-on-year +69.72% -33.38% +7.86%

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 27 May 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 27 May 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 27 May 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 -40 418 £475 - 232
London -37 227 £498 -0.50% 132
UK excluding London -19 211 £475 +11.76% 138
Work from Home -38 130 £475 +7.95% 126
North of England -24 70 £450 +12.50% 37
North West -5 47 £400 - 22
Midlands -42 40 £500 +40.45% 16
South West -12 32 £475 +11.76% 12
West Midlands -36 32 £463 +14.91% 12
Scotland 0 30 £510 +8.27% 8
South East -58 26 £550 +25.71% 34
Yorkshire -45 16 £506 +9.40% 7
East of England -26 9 £410 -14.14% 15
East Midlands -28 8 £575 +61.52% 4
North East -20 7 £450 +16.13% 9
Wales - 4 £450 - 6
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 11

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 21 (4.18%) CMS
2 19 (3.78%) Confluence
3 5 (1.00%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.80%) Kentico
4 4 (0.80%) Umbraco
4 4 (0.80%) WordPress
5 3 (0.60%) Headless CMS
6 2 (0.40%) Appian
7 1 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.20%) Camunda
7 1 (0.20%) Drupal
7 1 (0.20%) Mendix
7 1 (0.20%) Moodle
7 1 (0.20%) nginx
7 1 (0.20%) Strapi
7 1 (0.20%) Traefik
Applications
1 35 (6.97%) Sketch
2 24 (4.78%) Adobe XD
3 11 (2.19%) Photoshop
4 10 (1.99%) Chatbot
4 10 (1.99%) InVision
5 9 (1.79%) Adobe Illustrator
6 8 (1.59%) Adobe After Effects
7 5 (1.00%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
8 3 (0.60%) MS Visio
9 2 (0.40%) Final Cut Pro
9 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
9 2 (0.40%) Trello
9 2 (0.40%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.20%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 1 (0.20%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 5 (1.00%) Shopify
2 2 (0.40%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.20%) Eloqua
3 1 (0.20%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.20%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 152 (30.28%) Figma
2 57 (11.35%) Azure
3 29 (5.78%) AWS
4 22 (4.38%) Azure DevOps
5 17 (3.39%) Power Platform
6 14 (2.79%) SaaS
7 13 (2.59%) GitHub
7 13 (2.59%) GitHub Actions
8 9 (1.79%) GCP
9 8 (1.59%) Serverless
10 7 (1.39%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (1.39%) Firebase
11 6 (1.20%) Amazon S3
11 6 (1.20%) AWS CloudFormation
11 6 (1.20%) Miro
12 5 (1.00%) Slack
13 4 (0.80%) BigCommerce
13 4 (0.80%) Google Play
14 3 (0.60%) Amazon Bedrock
14 3 (0.60%) Anthropic Claude
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.20%) HTTP
1 1 (0.20%) Internet
1 1 (0.20%) Intranet
1 1 (0.20%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.79%) Power BI
1 9 (1.79%) SQL Server
2 7 (1.39%) NoSQL
3 5 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (1.00%) Power Query
4 4 (0.80%) Metadata
4 4 (0.80%) MongoDB
5 3 (0.60%) DynamoDB
5 3 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
5 3 (0.60%) Pinecone
5 3 (0.60%) Relational Database
5 3 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (0.40%) CockroachDB
6 2 (0.40%) Star Schema
7 1 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.20%) MySQL
7 1 (0.20%) Redis
7 1 (0.20%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 35 (6.97%) Git
2 31 (6.18%) JIRA
3 20 (3.98%) Cypress.io
4 15 (2.99%) GitLab
5 12 (2.39%) Jenkins
6 11 (2.19%) Axure RP
7 8 (1.59%) CircleCI
8 7 (1.39%) JUnit
9 6 (1.20%) fastlane
9 6 (1.20%) Mocha
10 5 (1.00%) Gradle
11 4 (0.80%) Android Studio
11 4 (0.80%) Crashlytics
11 4 (0.80%) Visual Studio
12 3 (0.60%) Vite
12 3 (0.60%) webpack
12 3 (0.60%) Xcode
13 2 (0.40%) Balsamiq
13 2 (0.40%) REST Assured
13 2 (0.40%) Storybook
General
1 142 (28.29%) Social Skills
2 93 (18.53%) Public Sector
3 83 (16.53%) Finance
4 57 (11.35%) Banking
5 31 (6.18%) Analytical Skills
6 21 (4.18%) Presentation Skills
7 20 (3.98%) Retail
8 17 (3.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 17 (3.39%) Marketing
9 12 (2.39%) Automotive
10 10 (1.99%) Publishing
11 9 (1.79%) Pharmaceutical
12 8 (1.59%) Influencing Skills
12 8 (1.59%) Legal
13 6 (1.20%) Games
13 6 (1.20%) Local Government
14 5 (1.00%) Documentation Skills
14 5 (1.00%) Retail Banking
15 4 (0.80%) Advertising
15 4 (0.80%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 250 (49.80%) Designer
2 138 (27.49%) UX Designer
3 85 (16.93%) Senior
4 72 (14.34%) Developer
5 56 (11.16%) UI Designer
6 43 (8.57%) Senior Designer
7 42 (8.37%) UI/UX Designer
8 41 (8.17%) Content Designer
9 36 (7.17%) Lead
10 35 (6.97%) Product Designer
11 30 (5.98%) Service Designer
12 29 (5.78%) Senior UX Designer
13 20 (3.98%) User Researcher
14 19 (3.78%) Analyst
15 18 (3.59%) User Experience Researcher
16 16 (3.19%) Architect
16 16 (3.19%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
17 15 (2.99%) Business Analyst
17 15 (2.99%) Full-Stack Developer
18 13 (2.59%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (14.94%) React
2 64 (12.75%) CSS
3 63 (12.55%) HTML
4 43 (8.57%) RESTful
5 29 (5.78%) AngularJS
5 29 (5.78%) HTML5
6 28 (5.58%) CSS3
7 27 (5.38%) .NET
8 22 (4.38%) REST
9 17 (3.39%) Jest
9 17 (3.39%) Node.js
10 14 (2.79%) Redux
10 14 (2.79%) Spring
11 13 (2.59%) Spring Boot
12 12 (2.39%) OAuth
13 11 (2.19%) Vue
14 10 (1.99%) Playwright
15 9 (1.79%) JSON
16 8 (1.59%) ASP.NET
16 8 (1.59%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 63 (12.55%) Product Ownership
2 37 (7.37%) Mobile App
3 11 (2.19%) Animation
3 11 (2.19%) Onboarding
4 9 (1.79%) Cloud Native
4 9 (1.79%) Graphic Design
4 9 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
5 8 (1.59%) NHS
6 7 (1.39%) Greenfield Project
6 7 (1.39%) Virtual Team
7 6 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.20%) Taxonomies
7 6 (1.20%) Virtual Reality
8 5 (1.00%) Digital Wallet
9 4 (0.80%) AI Agents
9 4 (0.80%) Augmented Reality
9 4 (0.80%) Data Structures
9 4 (0.80%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 3 (0.60%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 10 (1.99%) Android
2 7 (1.39%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.20%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 502 (100.00%) User Experience
2 213 (42.43%) Agile
3 135 (26.89%) User Research
4 101 (20.12%) Prototyping
5 92 (18.33%) Wireframes
6 90 (17.93%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
7 80 (15.94%) Service Design
8 77 (15.34%) Usability Testing
9 72 (14.34%) AI
9 72 (14.34%) UX Research
10 66 (13.15%) CI/CD
11 62 (12.35%) Problem-Solving
12 61 (12.15%) Interaction Design
13 53 (10.56%) Stakeholder Management
14 52 (10.36%) Workshop Facilitation
15 51 (10.16%) Analytics
16 50 (9.96%) DevOps
17 45 (8.96%) Journey Map
18 42 (8.37%) Continuous Improvement
19 40 (7.97%) Front End Development
Programming Languages
1 65 (12.95%) JavaScript
2 50 (9.96%) TypeScript
3 28 (5.58%) Java
4 27 (5.38%) Python
5 19 (3.78%) C#
6 15 (2.99%) SQL
7 7 (1.39%) Kotlin
8 6 (1.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (1.00%) C++
9 5 (1.00%) Korn
9 5 (1.00%) Lua
10 3 (0.60%) Swift
11 2 (0.40%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.40%) Bicep
11 2 (0.40%) PowerShell
12 1 (0.20%) C
12 1 (0.20%) Gremlin
12 1 (0.20%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.20%) SPARQL
12 1 (0.20%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 73 (14.54%) Security Cleared
2 54 (10.76%) SC Cleared
3 48 (9.56%) Degree
4 12 (2.39%) Master's Degree
5 10 (1.99%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (1.99%) DV Cleared
6 5 (1.00%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (0.60%) CCA
7 3 (0.60%) DBS Check
7 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.20%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.20%) Citrix Certification
8 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.20%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 170 (33.86%) Accessibility
2 69 (13.75%) WCAG
3 31 (6.18%) QA
4 5 (1.00%) Actionable Recommendations
4 5 (1.00%) Data Quality
5 2 (0.40%) GDPR
6 1 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 1 (0.20%) EU AI Act
6 1 (0.20%) GMP
6 1 (0.20%) GxP
6 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
6 1 (0.20%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.20%) PMO
6 1 (0.20%) WAI
6 1 (0.20%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 19 (3.78%) Docker
2 1 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 16 (3.19%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.79%) Terraform
3 2 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.20%) Ansible
4 1 (0.20%) Grafana
4 1 (0.20%) HP ALM
4 1 (0.20%) Podman
Vendors
1 45 (8.96%) Adobe
2 20 (3.98%) Microsoft
2 20 (3.98%) Salesforce
3 8 (1.59%) Google
4 7 (1.39%) SAP
5 6 (1.20%) Dynatrace
5 6 (1.20%) MuleSoft
6 5 (1.00%) ServiceNow
7 4 (0.80%) Sitecore
8 3 (0.60%) Apple
8 3 (0.60%) Progress
8 3 (0.60%) Xamarin
9 2 (0.40%) Blue Prism
9 2 (0.40%) Databricks
9 2 (0.40%) OpenAI
10 1 (0.20%) Automation Anywhere
10 1 (0.20%) CODA
10 1 (0.20%) HP
10 1 (0.20%) Qualtrics
10 1 (0.20%) UiPath