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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 274 206 233
Rank change year-on-year -68 +27 -40
Contract jobs citing UX Design 503 448 392
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.94% 1.37% 1.01%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.11% 1.51% 1.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 288 289 262
10th Percentile £363 £313 £332
25th Percentile £406 £365 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £463 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.70% -7.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £589
90th Percentile £668 £600 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £425 £450
% change year-on-year +9.41% -5.56% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 20 5
10th Percentile £22.02 £34.03 £28.11
25th Percentile £27.45 £35.25 £30.44
Median hourly rate £46.91 £36.50 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +28.51% +10.37% -46.01%
75th Percentile £73.44 £60.10 -
90th Percentile £90.75 £70.34 £38.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.04 £48.25 £30.88
% change year-on-year -35.67% +56.28% -55.97%

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 45,469 29,582 33,102
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.43% 85.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,813 18,412 20,921
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,891 1,754 1,674
10th Percentile £14.10 £14.20 £13.86
25th Percentile £17.85 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.92 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.80% -46.07% +6.25%

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 August 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 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for UX Design in the UK

UX Design
Top 16 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 August 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 -56 433 £475 +3.50% 501
UK excluding London -41 227 £465 +9.41% 249
London -68 226 £513 +9.04% 322
Work from Home -68 125 £465 +9.41% 256
North of England -49 73 £450 +20.00% 77
Midlands -31 47 £550 +37.16% 26
South West -1 41 £475 - 42
West Midlands -34 41 £475 -5.00% 19
Scotland -6 33 £531 +13.81% 25
Yorkshire -30 33 £500 +11.11% 19
North West -54 26 £375 +4.17% 39
South East -65 21 £580 +36.47% 46
North East -28 14 £450 -4.00% 20
East of England -14 13 £410 -6.02% 11
East Midlands -20 6 £575 +63.35% 7
Wales -17 2 - - 4

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 (5.77%) CMS
2 23 (4.57%) Confluence
3 8 (1.59%) WordPress
4 4 (0.80%) Headless CMS
4 4 (0.80%) Kentico
5 3 (0.60%) ColdFusion
5 3 (0.60%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.40%) Camunda
7 1 (0.20%) Apache
7 1 (0.20%) Apache Spark
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 22 (4.37%) Sketch
2 15 (2.98%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 11 (2.19%) Adobe XD
4 10 (1.99%) Adobe After Effects
5 9 (1.79%) Photoshop
6 8 (1.59%) Adobe Illustrator
6 8 (1.59%) Chatbot
7 6 (1.19%) Final Cut Pro
8 4 (0.80%) MS Visio
9 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
10 2 (0.40%) InVision
10 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
11 1 (0.20%) Adobe Captivate
11 1 (0.20%) Trello
11 1 (0.20%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 4 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
1 4 (0.80%) Shopify
2 2 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.20%) Eloqua
3 1 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.20%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.20%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 127 (25.25%) Figma
2 56 (11.13%) Azure
3 29 (5.77%) AWS
4 27 (5.37%) Azure DevOps
5 21 (4.17%) Power Platform
6 17 (3.38%) GitHub
7 15 (2.98%) SaaS
8 11 (2.19%) Firebase
8 11 (2.19%) GCP
8 11 (2.19%) GitHub Actions
9 10 (1.99%) Microsoft Copilot
10 7 (1.39%) Slack
11 6 (1.19%) Google Play
11 6 (1.19%) Serverless
12 5 (0.99%) Azure AI
12 5 (0.99%) Copilot Studio
12 5 (0.99%) Miro
12 5 (0.99%) PowerApps
13 4 (0.80%) BigCommerce
13 4 (0.80%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.20%) Bluetooth
1 1 (0.20%) NFC
1 1 (0.20%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (2.78%) Power BI
2 10 (1.99%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (1.59%) Elasticsearch
4 7 (1.39%) Metadata
4 7 (1.39%) SQL Server
5 6 (1.19%) Power Query
6 5 (0.99%) MongoDB
6 5 (0.99%) NoSQL
6 5 (0.99%) Redis
7 4 (0.80%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.60%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.60%) Star Schema
9 2 (0.40%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.40%) MySQL
9 2 (0.40%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 2 (0.40%) SQLite
10 1 (0.20%) Amazon QuickSight
10 1 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
10 1 (0.20%) Db2
Development Applications
1 33 (6.56%) JIRA
2 32 (6.36%) Git
3 16 (3.18%) Jenkins
4 14 (2.78%) Cypress.io
5 10 (1.99%) fastlane
6 8 (1.59%) Storybook
7 6 (1.19%) Android Studio
7 6 (1.19%) Gradle
8 5 (0.99%) Crashlytics
8 5 (0.99%) GitLab
8 5 (0.99%) Vite
8 5 (0.99%) webpack
8 5 (0.99%) Xcode
9 4 (0.80%) Claude Code
9 4 (0.80%) Jasmine
10 3 (0.60%) JUnit
10 3 (0.60%) Karma Test Runner
11 2 (0.40%) Babel
11 2 (0.40%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.40%) rollup.js
General
1 146 (29.03%) Social Skills
2 97 (19.28%) Public Sector
3 90 (17.89%) Finance
4 45 (8.95%) Banking
5 30 (5.96%) Retail
6 26 (5.17%) Analytical Skills
7 22 (4.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 19 (3.78%) Publishing
9 16 (3.18%) Automotive
9 16 (3.18%) Presentation Skills
10 13 (2.58%) Marketing
11 12 (2.39%) Influencing Skills
11 12 (2.39%) Military
12 8 (1.59%) Legal
13 5 (0.99%) Advertising
13 5 (0.99%) Investment Banking
13 5 (0.99%) Law
13 5 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
14 4 (0.80%) Electronics
14 4 (0.80%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 246 (48.91%) Designer
2 132 (26.24%) UX Designer
3 96 (19.09%) Senior
4 84 (16.70%) Developer
5 59 (11.73%) UI Designer
6 45 (8.95%) Lead
6 45 (8.95%) Senior Designer
7 42 (8.35%) Content Designer
7 42 (8.35%) UI/UX Designer
8 28 (5.57%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
8 28 (5.57%) Senior UX Designer
9 23 (4.57%) Product Designer
10 18 (3.58%) User Experience Researcher
10 18 (3.58%) User Researcher
11 17 (3.38%) Analyst
11 17 (3.38%) Senior Developer
12 16 (3.18%) Service Designer
13 15 (2.98%) Business Analyst
13 15 (2.98%) Consultant
13 15 (2.98%) React Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (14.12%) React
2 69 (13.72%) CSS
3 64 (12.72%) HTML
4 29 (5.77%) RESTful
5 28 (5.57%) AngularJS
6 25 (4.97%) HTML5
7 24 (4.77%) CSS3
8 21 (4.17%) REST
9 15 (2.98%) .NET
9 15 (2.98%) Next.js
10 14 (2.78%) Jest
11 13 (2.58%) Redux
12 12 (2.39%) Android SDK
13 10 (1.99%) Vue
14 9 (1.79%) GraphQL
14 9 (1.79%) Sass
14 9 (1.79%) Spring
15 8 (1.59%) .NET Framework
15 8 (1.59%) Spring Boot
15 8 (1.59%) VML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (12.52%) Product Ownership
2 48 (9.54%) Mobile App
3 15 (2.98%) Self-Motivation
4 14 (2.78%) Cloud Native
5 12 (2.39%) AI Agents
5 12 (2.39%) Onboarding
6 11 (2.19%) Animation
7 8 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (1.59%) Graphic Design
7 8 (1.59%) Taxonomies
8 7 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (1.39%) NHS
8 7 (1.39%) Virtual Reality
9 6 (1.19%) Algorithms
9 6 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
9 6 (1.19%) Social Media
9 6 (1.19%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 5 (0.99%) IoT
10 5 (0.99%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 15 (2.98%) Android
2 8 (1.59%) Apple iOS
3 3 (0.60%) Windows
4 1 (0.20%) Linux
4 1 (0.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 503 (100.00%) User Experience
2 207 (41.15%) Agile
3 108 (21.47%) User Research
4 94 (18.69%) Prototyping
4 94 (18.69%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 93 (18.49%) AI
6 90 (17.89%) Wireframes
7 75 (14.91%) Service Design
8 71 (14.12%) CI/CD
9 68 (13.52%) Stakeholder Management
10 66 (13.12%) Analytics
11 63 (12.52%) Problem-Solving
11 63 (12.52%) Usability Testing
12 56 (11.13%) Interaction Design
13 54 (10.74%) UX Research
14 53 (10.54%) Customer Experience
14 53 (10.54%) Workshop Facilitation
15 51 (10.14%) Scrum
16 49 (9.74%) Front End Development
16 49 (9.74%) Journey Map
Programming Languages
1 68 (13.52%) JavaScript
2 54 (10.74%) TypeScript
3 30 (5.96%) Java
4 24 (4.77%) SQL
5 22 (4.37%) Python
6 13 (2.58%) Kotlin
7 10 (1.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 9 (1.79%) C#
9 5 (0.99%) Swift
10 3 (0.60%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.60%) CFML
10 3 (0.60%) PHP
11 2 (0.40%) Bicep
11 2 (0.40%) Ruby
12 1 (0.20%) JSX
12 1 (0.20%) Korn
12 1 (0.20%) Lua
12 1 (0.20%) PowerShell
12 1 (0.20%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.20%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 82 (16.30%) Security Cleared
2 54 (10.74%) SC Cleared
3 45 (8.95%) Degree
4 18 (3.58%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (2.58%) DV Cleared
6 12 (2.39%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (1.19%) Master's Degree
8 3 (0.60%) DBS Check
9 2 (0.40%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.40%) 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
1 166 (33.00%) Accessibility
2 64 (12.72%) WCAG
3 27 (5.37%) QA
4 11 (2.19%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 42001
6 2 (0.40%) GDPR
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 (3.18%) Docker
Systems Management
1 15 (2.98%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.40%) Grafana
3 1 (0.20%) Istio
3 1 (0.20%) Kibana
3 1 (0.20%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 40 (7.95%) Adobe
2 36 (7.16%) Microsoft
3 12 (2.39%) Salesforce
4 11 (2.19%) Dynatrace
5 10 (1.99%) ServiceNow
6 9 (1.79%) Google
7 8 (1.59%) SAP
8 6 (1.19%) Apple
8 6 (1.19%) Oracle
9 5 (0.99%) Foundry
9 5 (0.99%) OpenAI
10 4 (0.80%) Anaplan
10 4 (0.80%) Databricks
10 4 (0.80%) Sitecore
11 3 (0.60%) Progress
12 2 (0.40%) Blue Prism
12 2 (0.40%) IBM
12 2 (0.40%) Optimizely
13 1 (0.20%) Automation Anywhere
13 1 (0.20%) Qualtrics