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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 283 213 231
Rank change year-on-year -70 +18 -16
Contract jobs citing UX Design 488 446 408
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.89% 1.36% 1.08%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.05% 1.50% 1.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 272 287 255
10th Percentile £363 £313 £328
25th Percentile £413 £375 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £460 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.61% -8.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £576 £538 £588
90th Percentile £668 £606 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +5.56% - -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 20 6
10th Percentile £23.08 £34.03 £30.97
25th Percentile £31.04 £35.25 £31.89
Median hourly rate £55.00 £36.50 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +50.68% +10.37% -54.39%
75th Percentile £73.13 £58.50 £34.26
90th Percentile £88.50 £70.16 £44.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £47.50 £32.21
% change year-on-year +15.79% +47.48% -58.44%

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 46,343 29,774 32,275
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.43% 90.67% 85.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,026 18,502 19,486
10th Percentile £325 £296 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,222 1,849 1,345
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.29 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £38.86 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.51% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.60 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £74.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.27 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +75.98% -48.10% +1.18%

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 September 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 September 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 September 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 -59 421 £475 +5.56% 751
UK excluding London -42 223 £475 +5.56% 338
London -75 218 £510 +12.22% 458
Work from Home -79 113 £488 +8.33% 377
North of England -59 77 £450 +18.42% 120
Midlands -24 48 £498 +17.06% 27
West Midlands -28 43 £485 +7.78% 13
South West -12 37 £475 - 47
Yorkshire -24 36 £500 +1.27% 39
Scotland -18 32 £531 +14.86% 18
North West -56 27 £375 - 62
South East -65 16 £610 +22.00% 61
North East -28 14 £450 -4.00% 20
East of England -20 13 £410 -10.87% 28
East Midlands -20 5 £573 +51.86% 14
Wales -13 2 - - 6
Northern Ireland +3 1 - - 31

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 29 (5.94%) CMS
2 26 (5.33%) Confluence
3 9 (1.84%) WordPress
4 4 (0.82%) Kentico
5 3 (0.61%) ColdFusion
5 3 (0.61%) Headless CMS
5 3 (0.61%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.20%) Apache
6 1 (0.20%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.20%) Camunda
6 1 (0.20%) Drupal
6 1 (0.20%) Mendix
6 1 (0.20%) nginx
6 1 (0.20%) Traefik
Applications
1 20 (4.10%) Sketch
2 16 (3.28%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 10 (2.05%) Adobe After Effects
3 10 (2.05%) Adobe XD
4 9 (1.84%) Photoshop
5 8 (1.64%) Adobe Illustrator
6 6 (1.23%) Final Cut Pro
7 3 (0.61%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.61%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.20%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.20%) InVision
8 1 (0.20%) Trello
8 1 (0.20%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 5 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.41%) Shopify
3 1 (0.20%) Eloqua
3 1 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.20%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 120 (24.59%) Figma
2 47 (9.63%) Azure
3 32 (6.56%) AWS
4 23 (4.71%) Azure DevOps
5 19 (3.89%) GitHub
5 19 (3.89%) Power Platform
6 16 (3.28%) SaaS
7 10 (2.05%) GitHub Actions
8 9 (1.84%) Firebase
8 9 (1.84%) GCP
8 9 (1.84%) Microsoft Copilot
9 7 (1.43%) Miro
9 7 (1.43%) Slack
10 6 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
10 6 (1.23%) Google Play
11 5 (1.02%) Copilot Studio
11 5 (1.02%) PowerApps
11 5 (1.02%) Serverless
12 4 (0.82%) AWS CloudFormation
12 4 (0.82%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.20%) Bluetooth
1 1 (0.20%) NFC
1 1 (0.20%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.25%) Power BI
2 9 (1.84%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (1.64%) Elasticsearch
4 7 (1.43%) Metadata
4 7 (1.43%) NoSQL
5 6 (1.23%) Power Query
5 6 (1.23%) SQL Server
6 5 (1.02%) MongoDB
6 5 (1.02%) Redis
7 4 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.61%) Star Schema
9 2 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.41%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.41%) MySQL
9 2 (0.41%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 2 (0.41%) SQLite
10 1 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
10 1 (0.20%) Flink
10 1 (0.20%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 36 (7.38%) Git
2 32 (6.56%) JIRA
3 18 (3.69%) Jenkins
4 12 (2.46%) Cypress.io
5 10 (2.05%) Storybook
6 8 (1.64%) fastlane
7 6 (1.23%) GitLab
7 6 (1.23%) webpack
8 5 (1.02%) Android Studio
8 5 (1.02%) Claude Code
8 5 (1.02%) Gradle
8 5 (1.02%) REST Assured
9 4 (0.82%) Crashlytics
9 4 (0.82%) IBM UrbanCode
9 4 (0.82%) Jasmine
9 4 (0.82%) Vite
9 4 (0.82%) Xcode
10 3 (0.61%) Babel
10 3 (0.61%) JUnit
10 3 (0.61%) Karma Test Runner
General
1 147 (30.12%) Social Skills
2 89 (18.24%) Public Sector
3 80 (16.39%) Finance
4 32 (6.56%) Banking
4 32 (6.56%) Retail
5 22 (4.51%) Analytical Skills
6 21 (4.30%) Publishing
7 19 (3.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 16 (3.28%) Automotive
8 16 (3.28%) Marketing
9 14 (2.87%) Presentation Skills
10 13 (2.66%) Influencing Skills
11 12 (2.46%) Military
12 9 (1.84%) Legal
13 6 (1.23%) Investment Banking
14 4 (0.82%) Aerospace
14 4 (0.82%) Corporate Banking
14 4 (0.82%) Front Office
14 4 (0.82%) Law
14 4 (0.82%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 232 (47.54%) Designer
2 131 (26.84%) UX Designer
3 99 (20.29%) Senior
4 89 (18.24%) Developer
5 57 (11.68%) UI Designer
6 46 (9.43%) Senior Designer
7 42 (8.61%) Lead
7 42 (8.61%) UI/UX Designer
8 35 (7.17%) Content Designer
9 31 (6.35%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
10 29 (5.94%) Senior UX Designer
11 25 (5.12%) Product Designer
12 19 (3.89%) User Experience Researcher
13 18 (3.69%) User Researcher
14 17 (3.48%) Senior Developer
15 16 (3.28%) React Developer
16 14 (2.87%) Service Designer
17 13 (2.66%) Business Analyst
17 13 (2.66%) Senior UI Designer
18 12 (2.46%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (15.16%) React
2 70 (14.34%) CSS
3 65 (13.32%) HTML
4 25 (5.12%) RESTful
5 24 (4.92%) AngularJS
5 24 (4.92%) HTML5
5 24 (4.92%) REST
6 22 (4.51%) CSS3
7 14 (2.87%) Next.js
7 14 (2.87%) Redux
8 13 (2.66%) Jest
9 11 (2.25%) .NET
9 11 (2.25%) Android SDK
9 11 (2.25%) Spring
9 11 (2.25%) Spring Boot
10 10 (2.05%) GraphQL
10 10 (2.05%) Node.js
10 10 (2.05%) Semantic HTML
10 10 (2.05%) Vue
11 9 (1.84%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 69 (14.14%) Product Ownership
2 46 (9.43%) Mobile App
3 13 (2.66%) Cloud Native
4 12 (2.46%) AI Agents
4 12 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
5 10 (2.05%) Animation
6 9 (1.84%) NHS
7 8 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
7 8 (1.64%) Taxonomies
8 7 (1.43%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (1.43%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.23%) Graphic Design
9 6 (1.23%) Social Media
10 5 (1.02%) Distributed Systems
10 5 (1.02%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (1.02%) Greenfield Project
10 5 (1.02%) Management Information System
10 5 (1.02%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 5 (1.02%) Virtual Reality
11 4 (0.82%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 16 (3.28%) Android
2 9 (1.84%) Apple iOS
3 3 (0.61%) Windows
4 1 (0.20%) Linux
4 1 (0.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 488 (100.00%) User Experience
2 208 (42.62%) Agile
3 111 (22.75%) User Research
4 97 (19.88%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 94 (19.26%) Prototyping
6 89 (18.24%) AI
7 88 (18.03%) Wireframes
8 78 (15.98%) Service Design
9 72 (14.75%) Stakeholder Management
10 69 (14.14%) CI/CD
11 68 (13.93%) Usability Testing
12 59 (12.09%) Analytics
13 55 (11.27%) Interaction Design
13 55 (11.27%) Problem-Solving
13 55 (11.27%) UX Research
14 53 (10.86%) Front End Development
15 51 (10.45%) Workshop Facilitation
16 49 (10.04%) Journey Map
17 48 (9.84%) Scrum
18 47 (9.63%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 72 (14.75%) JavaScript
2 58 (11.89%) TypeScript
3 29 (5.94%) Java
4 21 (4.30%) SQL
5 13 (2.66%) Kotlin
5 13 (2.66%) Python
6 9 (1.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 6 (1.23%) C#
8 4 (0.82%) Swift
9 3 (0.61%) Apex Code
9 3 (0.61%) CFML
9 3 (0.61%) PHP
10 2 (0.41%) Bicep
10 2 (0.41%) Ruby
11 1 (0.20%) C
11 1 (0.20%) JSX
11 1 (0.20%) Korn
11 1 (0.20%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 85 (17.42%) Security Cleared
2 55 (11.27%) SC Cleared
3 42 (8.61%) Degree
4 19 (3.89%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (2.66%) DV Cleared
6 11 (2.25%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (1.02%) Master's Degree
8 3 (0.61%) DBS Check
9 2 (0.41%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.41%) CCA
10 1 (0.20%) CTC Cleared
10 1 (0.20%) IIBA
10 1 (0.20%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.20%) MBA
10 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.20%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 164 (33.61%) Accessibility
2 63 (12.91%) WCAG
3 25 (5.12%) QA
4 9 (1.84%) Data Quality
5 4 (0.82%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.41%) GDPR
6 2 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 1 (0.20%) GMP
7 1 (0.20%) GRC
7 1 (0.20%) GxP
7 1 (0.20%) PMO
7 1 (0.20%) WAI
7 1 (0.20%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 16 (3.28%) Docker
Systems Management
1 13 (2.66%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.61%) Grafana
3 1 (0.20%) Istio
3 1 (0.20%) Kibana
3 1 (0.20%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 38 (7.79%) Adobe
2 36 (7.38%) Microsoft
3 11 (2.25%) Salesforce
4 10 (2.05%) Dynatrace
4 10 (2.05%) ServiceNow
5 7 (1.43%) Google
6 5 (1.02%) Apple
6 5 (1.02%) Oracle
6 5 (1.02%) SAP
7 4 (0.82%) Anaplan
7 4 (0.82%) Foundry
7 4 (0.82%) ION Trading
7 4 (0.82%) OpenAI
8 2 (0.41%) AppDynamics
8 2 (0.41%) Databricks
8 2 (0.41%) Optimizely
8 2 (0.41%) OutSystems
8 2 (0.41%) Progress
8 2 (0.41%) Sitecore
8 2 (0.41%) Splunk