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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 242 199 215
Rank change year-on-year -43 +16 -40
Contract jobs citing UX Design 528 431 474
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.00% 1.33% 1.11%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.18% 1.47% 1.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 331 285 331
10th Percentile £363 £310 £350
25th Percentile £405 £365 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £463 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.41% -7.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £545 £611
90th Percentile £668 £620 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £425 £425
% change year-on-year +11.18% - -10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 12 6
10th Percentile £21.12 £34.56 £29.14
25th Percentile £26.31 £35.25 £32.05
Median hourly rate £42.72 £42.00 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +1.70% +27.00% -42.49%
75th Percentile £70.63 £60.10 £39.65
90th Percentile £90.38 £70.16 £41.84
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.09 £70.16 -
% change year-on-year -59.96% - -

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 44,779 29,366 36,386
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.09% 90.39% 85.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,858 18,449 23,259
10th Percentile £325 £300 £304
25th Percentile £419 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £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 2,648 1,547 2,431
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.22 £12.79
25th Percentile £20.21 £17.45 £16.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -5.29%
75th Percentile £68.50 £52.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.65 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.34 £38.12
% change year-on-year +84.88% -36.15% -3.74%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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 -32 443 £475 +3.50% 165
London -31 244 £513 +9.33% 89
UK excluding London -31 223 £473 +11.18% 101
Work from Home -71 133 £500 +17.65% 78
North of England -54 73 £413 +3.13% 27
Scotland 0 39 £525 +12.48% 6
South West -4 37 £475 +1.28% 14
Midlands -38 36 £550 +54.49% 13
North West -42 36 £375 -6.25% 13
West Midlands -33 29 £500 +66.67% 10
South East -64 27 £550 +25.14% 33
Yorkshire -45 21 £500 - 11
North East -26 16 £450 +5.88% 3
East of England -17 12 £410 -14.14% 6
East Midlands -12 7 £588 +65.03% 3
Wales -7 2 - -
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 3

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 28 (5.30%) CMS
2 20 (3.79%) Confluence
3 6 (1.14%) WordPress
4 4 (0.76%) Headless CMS
4 4 (0.76%) Kentico
5 3 (0.57%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.38%) Mendix
7 1 (0.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.19%) Apache
7 1 (0.19%) Camunda
7 1 (0.19%) Drupal
7 1 (0.19%) Moodle
7 1 (0.19%) nginx
7 1 (0.19%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.19%) Strapi
7 1 (0.19%) Traefik
Applications
1 29 (5.49%) Sketch
2 15 (2.84%) Adobe XD
3 12 (2.27%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 11 (2.08%) Adobe After Effects
5 10 (1.89%) Photoshop
6 8 (1.52%) Adobe Illustrator
6 8 (1.52%) Chatbot
7 6 (1.14%) Final Cut Pro
8 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Excel
8 3 (0.57%) MS Visio
9 2 (0.38%) InVision
9 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
9 2 (0.38%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.19%) Adobe Captivate
10 1 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 1 (0.19%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (0.95%) Shopify
2 4 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.38%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.19%) Eloqua
4 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.19%) SAP HR
4 1 (0.19%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 150 (28.41%) Figma
2 60 (11.36%) Azure
3 29 (5.49%) Azure DevOps
4 27 (5.11%) AWS
5 22 (4.17%) Power Platform
6 17 (3.22%) GitHub
7 16 (3.03%) SaaS
8 13 (2.46%) GitHub Actions
9 11 (2.08%) Firebase
10 9 (1.70%) GCP
10 9 (1.70%) Microsoft Copilot
11 7 (1.33%) Serverless
11 7 (1.33%) Slack
12 6 (1.14%) Google Play
12 6 (1.14%) Miro
13 5 (0.95%) Azure AI
14 4 (0.76%) BigCommerce
14 4 (0.76%) Copilot Studio
14 4 (0.76%) Microsoft 365
14 4 (0.76%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.19%) Bluetooth
1 1 (0.19%) Internet
1 1 (0.19%) NFC
1 1 (0.19%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.84%) Power BI
2 10 (1.89%) PostgreSQL
3 6 (1.14%) Metadata
3 6 (1.14%) NoSQL
3 6 (1.14%) Power Query
3 6 (1.14%) SQL Server
4 4 (0.76%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.76%) MongoDB
5 3 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
5 3 (0.57%) MySQL
5 3 (0.57%) Redis
5 3 (0.57%) Relational Database
5 3 (0.57%) Star Schema
6 2 (0.38%) DynamoDB
6 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (0.38%) SQLite
7 1 (0.19%) Amazon QuickSight
7 1 (0.19%) Flink
7 1 (0.19%) Pinecone
7 1 (0.19%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 33 (6.25%) JIRA
2 29 (5.49%) Git
3 18 (3.41%) Cypress.io
4 15 (2.84%) Jenkins
5 10 (1.89%) fastlane
6 9 (1.70%) GitLab
7 6 (1.14%) Android Studio
7 6 (1.14%) Gradle
7 6 (1.14%) Vite
7 6 (1.14%) webpack
8 5 (0.95%) Crashlytics
8 5 (0.95%) JUnit
8 5 (0.95%) Storybook
8 5 (0.95%) Xcode
9 4 (0.76%) Claude Code
10 3 (0.57%) Axure RP
11 2 (0.38%) Babel
11 2 (0.38%) Jasmine
11 2 (0.38%) Karma Test Runner
11 2 (0.38%) REST Assured
General
1 159 (30.11%) Social Skills
2 109 (20.64%) Public Sector
3 90 (17.05%) Finance
4 50 (9.47%) Banking
5 30 (5.68%) Retail
6 29 (5.49%) Analytical Skills
7 21 (3.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 20 (3.79%) Presentation Skills
9 17 (3.22%) Publishing
10 15 (2.84%) Automotive
10 15 (2.84%) Marketing
11 10 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
11 10 (1.89%) Legal
11 10 (1.89%) Military
12 6 (1.14%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (0.95%) Games
13 5 (0.95%) Law
14 4 (0.76%) Corporate Banking
14 4 (0.76%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 265 (50.19%) Designer
2 143 (27.08%) UX Designer
3 89 (16.86%) Senior
4 74 (14.02%) Developer
5 65 (12.31%) UI Designer
6 49 (9.28%) UI/UX Designer
7 47 (8.90%) Content Designer
8 46 (8.71%) Senior Designer
9 43 (8.14%) Lead
10 33 (6.25%) Product Designer
11 29 (5.49%) Senior UX Designer
12 26 (4.92%) User Researcher
13 19 (3.60%) Analyst
13 19 (3.60%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
13 19 (3.60%) Service Designer
14 18 (3.41%) User Experience Researcher
15 16 (3.03%) Business Analyst
16 15 (2.84%) Architect
16 15 (2.84%) Consultant
17 14 (2.65%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (12.69%) React
2 64 (12.12%) CSS
3 60 (11.36%) HTML
4 39 (7.39%) RESTful
5 29 (5.49%) AngularJS
6 26 (4.92%) HTML5
7 25 (4.73%) CSS3
8 23 (4.36%) REST
9 20 (3.79%) .NET
10 17 (3.22%) Jest
11 14 (2.65%) Redux
12 11 (2.08%) Node.js
12 11 (2.08%) Playwright
12 11 (2.08%) Vue
13 10 (1.89%) GraphQL
14 9 (1.70%) Next.js
14 9 (1.70%) Spring
15 8 (1.52%) .NET Framework
15 8 (1.52%) OAuth
15 8 (1.52%) VML
Miscellaneous
1 70 (13.26%) Product Ownership
2 50 (9.47%) Mobile App
3 15 (2.84%) Animation
4 14 (2.65%) Self-Motivation
5 13 (2.46%) Onboarding
6 12 (2.27%) Cloud Native
7 10 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (1.52%) AI Agents
8 8 (1.52%) Graphic Design
8 8 (1.52%) Greenfield Project
8 8 (1.52%) Taxonomies
9 7 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (1.14%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (1.14%) NHS
11 5 (0.95%) Virtual Reality
12 4 (0.76%) Algorithms
12 4 (0.76%) Data Structures
12 4 (0.76%) IoT
12 4 (0.76%) Social Media
12 4 (0.76%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 15 (2.84%) Android
2 11 (2.08%) Apple iOS
3 2 (0.38%) Windows
4 1 (0.19%) Linux
4 1 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 528 (100.00%) User Experience
2 226 (42.80%) Agile
3 138 (26.14%) User Research
4 111 (21.02%) Prototyping
5 102 (19.32%) Wireframes
6 99 (18.75%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
7 94 (17.80%) AI
8 86 (16.29%) Service Design
9 79 (14.96%) Usability Testing
10 72 (13.64%) UX Research
11 70 (13.26%) Analytics
12 69 (13.07%) Stakeholder Management
13 67 (12.69%) CI/CD
14 64 (12.12%) Interaction Design
15 61 (11.55%) Problem-Solving
16 55 (10.42%) DevOps
17 52 (9.85%) Journey Map
18 51 (9.66%) Customer Experience
18 51 (9.66%) Workshop Facilitation
19 48 (9.09%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 59 (11.17%) JavaScript
2 54 (10.23%) TypeScript
3 30 (5.68%) Java
4 26 (4.92%) Python
5 20 (3.79%) SQL
6 15 (2.84%) C#
7 10 (1.89%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (1.89%) Kotlin
8 5 (0.95%) C++
8 5 (0.95%) Korn
8 5 (0.95%) Lua
8 5 (0.95%) Swift
9 4 (0.76%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.38%) Bicep
10 2 (0.38%) PowerShell
11 1 (0.19%) Objective-C
11 1 (0.19%) PHP
11 1 (0.19%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.19%) SPARQL
11 1 (0.19%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 90 (17.05%) Security Cleared
2 64 (12.12%) SC Cleared
3 52 (9.85%) Degree
4 14 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (2.27%) DV Cleared
6 10 (1.89%) Master's Degree
7 7 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (0.57%) Azure Certification
8 3 (0.57%) DBS Check
9 2 (0.38%) CCA
10 1 (0.19%) Citrix Certification
10 1 (0.19%) CTC Cleared
10 1 (0.19%) IIBA
10 1 (0.19%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 179 (33.90%) Accessibility
2 70 (13.26%) WCAG
3 28 (5.30%) QA
4 11 (2.08%) Data Quality
5 5 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
6 3 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 2 (0.38%) GDPR
8 1 (0.19%) EU AI Act
8 1 (0.19%) GMP
8 1 (0.19%) GRC
8 1 (0.19%) GxP
8 1 (0.19%) PMO
8 1 (0.19%) WAI
8 1 (0.19%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 17 (3.22%) Docker
2 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 13 (2.46%) Kubernetes
1 13 (2.46%) Terraform
2 1 (0.19%) Grafana
2 1 (0.19%) HP ALM
2 1 (0.19%) Kibana
Vendors
1 43 (8.14%) Adobe
2 35 (6.63%) Microsoft
3 18 (3.41%) Salesforce
4 10 (1.89%) Dynatrace
4 10 (1.89%) Google
5 8 (1.52%) SAP
6 7 (1.33%) ServiceNow
7 5 (0.95%) Apple
7 5 (0.95%) Foundry
8 4 (0.76%) Databricks
8 4 (0.76%) Oracle
8 4 (0.76%) Sitecore
9 3 (0.57%) Progress
9 3 (0.57%) Xamarin
10 2 (0.38%) Blue Prism
10 2 (0.38%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.38%) Optimizely
11 1 (0.19%) Automation Anywhere
11 1 (0.19%) Qualtrics
11 1 (0.19%) UiPath