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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 283 205 220
Rank change year-on-year -78 +15 -27
Contract jobs citing UX Design 495 447 427
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.91% 1.36% 1.11%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.08% 1.50% 1.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 288 273
10th Percentile £363 £307 £333
25th Percentile £413 £375 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £526 £588
90th Percentile £668 £596 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £450
% change year-on-year +11.76% -5.56% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 20 6
10th Percentile £22.59 £34.03 £28.50
25th Percentile £27.67 £35.25 £31.10
Median hourly rate £51.50 £36.50 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +41.10% +10.37% -52.84%
75th Percentile £73.13 £58.50 £33.42
90th Percentile £88.50 £70.16 £43.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £47.50 £32.21
% change year-on-year -28.44% +47.48% -55.58%

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 45,960 29,830 33,021
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.47% 90.53% 85.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,897 18,534 20,247
10th Percentile £325 £300 £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 £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,123 1,812 1,459
10th Percentile £13.84 £14.23 £14.96
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -1.91%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.76 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.56 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +84.69% -47.67% +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 18 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 18 September 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 18 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 -47 432 £475 +5.56% 624
UK excluding London -56 226 £475 +11.76% 281
London -65 225 £513 +10.81% 392
Work from Home -71 122 £485 +14.12% 296
North of England -41 76 £450 +19.21% 90
Midlands -29 50 £540 +30.79% 31
West Midlands -24 44 £498 +12.43% 19
South West -6 38 £475 -5.00% 40
Yorkshire -18 35 £500 - 21
Scotland -22 32 £531 +14.86% 14
North West -56 27 £400 +6.67% 58
South East -68 19 £550 +20.55% 62
North East -35 14 £450 -4.00% 12
East of England -25 12 £410 -6.02% 16
East Midlands -18 6 £575 +60.61% 12
Wales -14 2 - - 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 29 (5.86%) CMS
2 25 (5.05%) Confluence
3 8 (1.62%) WordPress
4 4 (0.81%) 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 21 (4.24%) Sketch
2 16 (3.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 11 (2.22%) Adobe XD
4 10 (2.02%) Adobe After Effects
5 9 (1.82%) Photoshop
6 8 (1.62%) Adobe Illustrator
7 6 (1.21%) Chatbot
7 6 (1.21%) Final Cut Pro
8 4 (0.81%) MS Visio
9 3 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
10 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
11 1 (0.20%) Adobe Captivate
11 1 (0.20%) InVision
11 1 (0.20%) Trello
11 1 (0.20%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 6 (1.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.81%) Shopify
3 2 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.20%) Eloqua
4 1 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.20%) SAP HR
4 1 (0.20%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 118 (23.84%) Figma
2 55 (11.11%) Azure
3 31 (6.26%) AWS
4 26 (5.25%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (4.44%) Power Platform
6 19 (3.84%) GitHub
7 15 (3.03%) SaaS
8 11 (2.22%) Firebase
8 11 (2.22%) GitHub Actions
9 10 (2.02%) Microsoft Copilot
10 9 (1.82%) GCP
11 7 (1.41%) Slack
12 6 (1.21%) Dynamics 365
12 6 (1.21%) Google Play
12 6 (1.21%) Miro
13 5 (1.01%) Azure AI
13 5 (1.01%) Copilot Studio
13 5 (1.01%) PowerApps
13 5 (1.01%) Serverless
14 4 (0.81%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.20%) Bluetooth
1 1 (0.20%) NFC
1 1 (0.20%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.42%) Power BI
2 9 (1.82%) PostgreSQL
3 8 (1.62%) Elasticsearch
4 7 (1.41%) Metadata
5 6 (1.21%) NoSQL
5 6 (1.21%) Power Query
5 6 (1.21%) SQL Server
6 5 (1.01%) Redis
7 4 (0.81%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (0.81%) MongoDB
8 3 (0.61%) Star Schema
9 2 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.40%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.40%) MySQL
9 2 (0.40%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.40%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 2 (0.40%) SQLite
10 1 (0.20%) Amazon QuickSight
10 1 (0.20%) Flink
10 1 (0.20%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 37 (7.47%) Git
2 33 (6.67%) JIRA
3 20 (4.04%) Jenkins
4 14 (2.83%) Cypress.io
5 10 (2.02%) fastlane
5 10 (2.02%) Storybook
6 6 (1.21%) Android Studio
6 6 (1.21%) GitLab
6 6 (1.21%) Gradle
6 6 (1.21%) Vite
6 6 (1.21%) webpack
7 5 (1.01%) Crashlytics
7 5 (1.01%) REST Assured
7 5 (1.01%) Xcode
8 4 (0.81%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.81%) IBM UrbanCode
8 4 (0.81%) Jasmine
9 3 (0.61%) Babel
9 3 (0.61%) JUnit
9 3 (0.61%) Karma Test Runner
General
1 145 (29.29%) Social Skills
2 91 (18.38%) Public Sector
3 85 (17.17%) Finance
4 38 (7.68%) Banking
5 32 (6.46%) Retail
6 25 (5.05%) Analytical Skills
7 21 (4.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 21 (4.24%) Publishing
8 16 (3.23%) Automotive
8 16 (3.23%) Marketing
9 14 (2.83%) Influencing Skills
10 13 (2.63%) Presentation Skills
11 12 (2.42%) Military
12 10 (2.02%) Legal
13 6 (1.21%) Investment Banking
14 5 (1.01%) Law
14 5 (1.01%) Pharmaceutical
15 4 (0.81%) Aerospace
15 4 (0.81%) Front Office
16 3 (0.61%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 234 (47.27%) Designer
2 127 (25.66%) UX Designer
3 104 (21.01%) Senior
4 88 (17.78%) Developer
5 57 (11.52%) UI Designer
6 45 (9.09%) Senior Designer
7 44 (8.89%) Lead
8 41 (8.28%) UI/UX Designer
9 38 (7.68%) Content Designer
10 29 (5.86%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
11 28 (5.66%) Senior UX Designer
12 24 (4.85%) Product Designer
13 21 (4.24%) Senior Developer
14 18 (3.64%) User Experience Researcher
14 18 (3.64%) User Researcher
15 16 (3.23%) React Developer
16 14 (2.83%) Analyst
16 14 (2.83%) Business Analyst
16 14 (2.83%) Service Designer
17 13 (2.63%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (14.95%) React
2 69 (13.94%) CSS
3 65 (13.13%) HTML
4 27 (5.45%) RESTful
5 26 (5.25%) AngularJS
5 26 (5.25%) HTML5
6 24 (4.85%) CSS3
6 24 (4.85%) REST
7 15 (3.03%) Next.js
8 14 (2.83%) Jest
8 14 (2.83%) Redux
9 13 (2.63%) .NET
10 12 (2.42%) Android SDK
10 12 (2.42%) GraphQL
10 12 (2.42%) Spring
10 12 (2.42%) Vue
11 11 (2.22%) Spring Boot
12 10 (2.02%) Node.js
13 9 (1.82%) Playwright
13 9 (1.82%) Semantic HTML
Miscellaneous
1 69 (13.94%) Product Ownership
2 46 (9.29%) Mobile App
3 14 (2.83%) Self-Motivation
4 13 (2.63%) AI Agents
4 13 (2.63%) Cloud Native
5 10 (2.02%) Animation
6 8 (1.62%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (1.62%) Legacy Systems
6 8 (1.62%) NHS
6 8 (1.62%) Onboarding
6 8 (1.62%) Taxonomies
7 6 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.21%) Graphic Design
7 6 (1.21%) Social Media
8 5 (1.01%) Distributed Systems
8 5 (1.01%) Greenfield Project
8 5 (1.01%) Management Information System
8 5 (1.01%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 5 (1.01%) Virtual Reality
9 4 (0.81%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 16 (3.23%) Android
2 9 (1.82%) Apple iOS
3 3 (0.61%) Windows
4 1 (0.20%) Linux
4 1 (0.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 495 (100.00%) User Experience
2 205 (41.41%) Agile
3 106 (21.41%) User Research
4 95 (19.19%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 94 (18.99%) AI
6 89 (17.98%) Prototyping
7 87 (17.58%) Wireframes
8 76 (15.35%) Service Design
9 74 (14.95%) CI/CD
10 73 (14.75%) Stakeholder Management
11 66 (13.33%) Usability Testing
12 63 (12.73%) Analytics
13 61 (12.32%) Problem-Solving
14 52 (10.51%) Scrum
14 52 (10.51%) UX Research
15 51 (10.30%) Interaction Design
16 50 (10.10%) Front End Development
16 50 (10.10%) Test Automation
17 49 (9.90%) Workshop Facilitation
18 48 (9.70%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 69 (13.94%) JavaScript
2 58 (11.72%) TypeScript
3 30 (6.06%) Java
4 22 (4.44%) SQL
5 16 (3.23%) Python
6 14 (2.83%) Kotlin
7 10 (2.02%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 7 (1.41%) C#
9 5 (1.01%) Swift
10 3 (0.61%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.61%) CFML
10 3 (0.61%) PHP
11 2 (0.40%) Bicep
11 2 (0.40%) Ruby
12 1 (0.20%) C
12 1 (0.20%) JSX
12 1 (0.20%) Korn
12 1 (0.20%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 85 (17.17%) Security Cleared
2 56 (11.31%) SC Cleared
3 42 (8.48%) Degree
4 18 (3.64%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (2.63%) DV Cleared
6 12 (2.42%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (1.01%) Master's Degree
8 3 (0.61%) 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
1 162 (32.73%) Accessibility
2 66 (13.33%) WCAG
3 28 (5.66%) QA
4 11 (2.22%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (0.61%) 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 (3.23%) Docker
Systems Management
1 13 (2.63%) 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 41 (8.28%) Adobe
2 40 (8.08%) Microsoft
3 14 (2.83%) Salesforce
4 12 (2.42%) Dynatrace
5 10 (2.02%) ServiceNow
6 8 (1.62%) Google
6 8 (1.62%) SAP
7 6 (1.21%) Apple
8 5 (1.01%) Foundry
8 5 (1.01%) OpenAI
8 5 (1.01%) Oracle
9 4 (0.81%) Anaplan
9 4 (0.81%) Databricks
9 4 (0.81%) ION Trading
9 4 (0.81%) Sitecore
10 2 (0.40%) AppDynamics
10 2 (0.40%) IBM
10 2 (0.40%) Progress
10 2 (0.40%) Qualtrics
10 2 (0.40%) Splunk