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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 235 226 240
Rank change year-on-year -9 +14 -83
Contract jobs citing UX Design 448 376 438
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.21% 1.13% 1.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.37% 1.28% 1.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 316 236 301
10th Percentile £350 £313 £350
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £501
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -0.10% -9.00%
75th Percentile £550 £578 £600
90th Percentile £607 £650 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £500
% change year-on-year - -10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 4 9
10th Percentile £27.62 £30.76 £46.34
25th Percentile £35.60 £31.23 £70.07
Median hourly rate £44.50 £33.27 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +33.75% -54.11% +33.03%
75th Percentile £63.75 £39.31 £81.25
90th Percentile £70.13 £47.98 £81.50
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 32,670 29,303 37,803
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.06% 88.34% 87.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,630 17,837 25,180
10th Percentile £304 £308 £306
25th Percentile £406 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,024 946 1,523
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £18.98
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +27.14%
75th Percentile £52.72 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.25 £74.60 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £30.45 £45.21
% change year-on-year -22.58% -32.65% +44.86%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -6 362 £473 -7.80% 331
London -20 204 £479 -8.81% 177
UK excluding London +13 183 £450 - 193
Work from Home -16 126 £475 +5.56% 177
North of England -18 66 £400 -5.88% 69
North West -4 40 £388 +1.31% 42
Midlands -13 37 £425 +19.38% 17
Scotland +16 33 £475 +8.57% 9
West Midlands -8 31 £425 -24.44% 15
South East -12 21 £519 +22.06% 62
Yorkshire -43 20 £500 -3.61% 19
South West 0 13 £450 +2.86% 16
East of England -16 8 £460 +2.22% 13
Wales +3 6 £463 +8.82% 5
North East -2 6 £369 - 8
East Midlands -17 6 £455 +27.81% 2
Northern Ireland -9 1 £625 +16.28% 5

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 19 (4.24%) Confluence
2 17 (3.79%) CMS
3 6 (1.34%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.34%) SugarCRM
4 3 (0.67%) Jupyter
5 2 (0.45%) Appian
5 2 (0.45%) Headless CMS
5 2 (0.45%) Sitecore CMS
6 1 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.22%) Cloud Foundry
6 1 (0.22%) Drupal
6 1 (0.22%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.22%) WordPress
Applications
1 51 (11.38%) Sketch
2 32 (7.14%) Adobe XD
3 17 (3.79%) InVision
4 11 (2.46%) Chatbot
5 6 (1.34%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 6 (1.34%) Adobe Illustrator
6 5 (1.12%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.89%) Adobe After Effects
8 3 (0.67%) Microsoft Excel
8 3 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
8 3 (0.67%) OmniGraffle
8 3 (0.67%) Trello
9 2 (0.45%) Blender
9 2 (0.45%) CINEMA 4D
9 2 (0.45%) InDesign
9 2 (0.45%) MS Visio
9 2 (0.45%) UXPin
9 2 (0.45%) Zeplin
10 1 (0.22%) Adobe Premiere
10 1 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.45%) 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
1 124 (27.68%) Figma
2 58 (12.95%) Azure
3 56 (12.50%) AWS
4 32 (7.14%) SaaS
5 21 (4.69%) GCP
6 20 (4.46%) Miro
7 14 (3.13%) Power Platform
8 13 (2.90%) GitHub
9 11 (2.46%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (2.23%) GitHub Actions
11 7 (1.56%) Firebase
12 6 (1.34%) Microsoft 365
12 6 (1.34%) Serverless
13 5 (1.12%) AWS CloudFormation
13 5 (1.12%) PaaS
13 5 (1.12%) PowerApps
14 4 (0.89%) AWS Lambda
14 4 (0.89%) Entra ID
14 4 (0.89%) IaaS
14 4 (0.89%) Lucidchart
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.12%) Internet
2 3 (0.67%) HTTP
3 2 (0.45%) Intranet
4 1 (0.22%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.22%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (3.35%) NoSQL
2 11 (2.46%) MongoDB
3 10 (2.23%) MySQL
4 9 (2.01%) Power BI
5 7 (1.56%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (1.56%) Relational Database
5 7 (1.56%) SQL Server
6 5 (1.12%) Mixpanel
7 4 (0.89%) DynamoDB
8 2 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.45%) CockroachDB
8 2 (0.45%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.45%) Metadata
8 2 (0.45%) Pinecone
9 1 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
9 1 (0.22%) Big Data
9 1 (0.22%) MariaDB
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.22%) SAP BW
9 1 (0.22%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 50 (11.16%) Git
2 37 (8.26%) JIRA
3 24 (5.36%) Axure RP
4 16 (3.57%) Cypress.io
4 16 (3.57%) Jenkins
5 13 (2.90%) GitLab
6 10 (2.23%) JUnit
7 7 (1.56%) CircleCI
7 7 (1.56%) Gradle
8 6 (1.34%) Xcode
9 5 (1.12%) Visual Website Optimizer
9 5 (1.12%) webpack
10 4 (0.89%) Android Studio
10 4 (0.89%) Balsamiq
10 4 (0.89%) Eclipse
11 3 (0.67%) Lerna
11 3 (0.67%) Mocha
11 3 (0.67%) Visual Studio
12 2 (0.45%) Snyk
12 2 (0.45%) SonarQube
General
1 157 (35.04%) Social Skills
2 109 (24.33%) Finance
3 69 (15.40%) Public Sector
4 59 (13.17%) Banking
5 42 (9.38%) Analytical Skills
6 30 (6.70%) Marketing
7 13 (2.90%) Influencing Skills
8 12 (2.68%) Financial Institution
9 10 (2.23%) Legal
10 9 (2.01%) Automotive
10 9 (2.01%) Pharmaceutical
10 9 (2.01%) Presentation Skills
11 8 (1.79%) Retail
12 6 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (1.12%) Publishing
14 3 (0.67%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.67%) Investment Banking
14 3 (0.67%) Local Government
14 3 (0.67%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.67%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 181 (40.40%) Designer
2 126 (28.13%) UX Designer
3 90 (20.09%) Developer
4 78 (17.41%) Senior
5 36 (8.04%) Senior Designer
6 33 (7.37%) Service Designer
7 32 (7.14%) UI Designer
8 29 (6.47%) Lead
9 26 (5.80%) Senior UX Designer
9 26 (5.80%) UI/UX Designer
10 24 (5.36%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
11 21 (4.69%) User Researcher
12 20 (4.46%) Product Designer
13 16 (3.57%) Analyst
14 14 (3.13%) Business Analyst
15 12 (2.68%) Content Designer
15 12 (2.68%) React Developer
15 12 (2.68%) Senior Developer
15 12 (2.68%) UX Service Designer
16 11 (2.46%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (19.64%) CSS
1 88 (19.64%) HTML
2 70 (15.63%) React
3 54 (12.05%) RESTful
4 32 (7.14%) HTML5
4 32 (7.14%) REST
5 29 (6.47%) AngularJS
6 25 (5.58%) CSS3
7 24 (5.36%) Node.js
8 19 (4.24%) Spring
9 18 (4.02%) .NET
9 18 (4.02%) Jest
9 18 (4.02%) Next.js
10 16 (3.57%) Playwright
10 16 (3.57%) Redux
10 16 (3.57%) Spring Boot
11 12 (2.68%) GraphQL
12 10 (2.23%) Web Services
13 9 (2.01%) jQuery
13 9 (2.01%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 50 (11.16%) Product Ownership
2 46 (10.27%) Mobile App
3 26 (5.80%) Onboarding
4 12 (2.68%) Low-Code
5 10 (2.23%) NHS
5 10 (2.23%) Virtual Team
6 8 (1.79%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (1.34%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.34%) Greenfield Project
7 6 (1.34%) W3C
8 5 (1.12%) Cloud Native
8 5 (1.12%) Digital Wallet
8 5 (1.12%) Mobile Banking
8 5 (1.12%) RIA
9 4 (0.89%) Blog
9 4 (0.89%) Data Structures
9 4 (0.89%) Digital Media
9 4 (0.89%) Learning Management System
9 4 (0.89%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 18 (4.02%) Android
1 18 (4.02%) Apple iOS
2 5 (1.12%) Windows
3 4 (0.89%) Linux
4 3 (0.67%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.45%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.22%) VMS
6 1 (0.22%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 448 (100.00%) User Experience
2 211 (47.10%) Agile
3 125 (27.90%) User Research
4 98 (21.88%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 87 (19.42%) Service Design
5 87 (19.42%) Usability Testing
6 83 (18.53%) Problem-Solving
7 77 (17.19%) Wireframes
8 74 (16.52%) CI/CD
8 74 (16.52%) Prototyping
9 69 (15.40%) Front End Development
10 59 (13.17%) Analytics
11 54 (12.05%) Interaction Design
11 54 (12.05%) UX Research
12 47 (10.49%) DevOps
13 44 (9.82%) Continuous Improvement
13 44 (9.82%) Workshop Facilitation
14 43 (9.60%) Microservices
15 42 (9.38%) AI
16 41 (9.15%) Journey Map
Programming Languages
1 81 (18.08%) JavaScript
2 52 (11.61%) TypeScript
3 44 (9.82%) Java
4 22 (4.91%) SQL
5 19 (4.24%) Python
6 14 (3.13%) Kotlin
7 13 (2.90%) C#
7 13 (2.90%) Swift
8 9 (2.01%) Objective-C
9 7 (1.56%) PHP
10 5 (1.12%) Ruby
10 5 (1.12%) Scala
11 4 (0.89%) C++
12 3 (0.67%) C
13 2 (0.45%) Bash
13 2 (0.45%) COBOL
13 2 (0.45%) Groovy
13 2 (0.45%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.22%) BeanShell
14 1 (0.22%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 48 (10.71%) Degree
2 40 (8.93%) Security Cleared
3 22 (4.91%) SC Cleared
4 17 (3.79%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (2.23%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.12%) Master's Degree
7 4 (0.89%) MCP
8 3 (0.67%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.45%) 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
1 126 (28.13%) Accessibility
2 41 (9.15%) QA
2 41 (9.15%) WCAG
3 12 (2.68%) GDPR
4 8 (1.79%) Actionable Recommendations
5 5 (1.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 4 (0.89%) Data Quality
6 4 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (0.67%) SLA
8 1 (0.22%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.22%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 32 (7.14%) Docker
2 3 (0.67%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.22%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 19 (4.24%) Kubernetes
2 14 (3.13%) Terraform
3 6 (1.34%) Ansible
3 6 (1.34%) Grafana
4 3 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (0.45%) 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 46 (10.27%) Adobe
2 37 (8.26%) Microsoft
3 22 (4.91%) Google
4 16 (3.57%) Salesforce
5 11 (2.46%) ServiceNow
6 8 (1.79%) Oracle
6 8 (1.79%) SAP
7 7 (1.56%) Hotjar
7 7 (1.56%) Optimizely
8 6 (1.34%) Hopewiser
9 5 (1.12%) Amplitude
9 5 (1.12%) Apple
9 5 (1.12%) MuleSoft
9 5 (1.12%) OutSystems
10 4 (0.89%) Mercator
10 4 (0.89%) OpenAI
11 3 (0.67%) Dataiku
12 2 (0.45%) OneTrust
12 2 (0.45%) Palantir
12 2 (0.45%) Sitecore