UX Designer Contract Job Trends

User Experience Designer
UK

The median User Experience Designer daily rate in the UK is £456, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 October 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 474 437 489
Rank change year-on-year -37 +52 -127
Contract jobs requiring a UX Designer 109 128 133
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.32% 0.35% 0.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.35% 0.38% 0.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 72 79 88
10th Percentile £313 £348 £325
25th Percentile £372 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £509 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.28% -3.14% -0.94%
75th Percentile £526 £575 £616
90th Percentile £594 £634 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £436 £438 £450
% change year-on-year -0.34% -2.78% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 2
10th Percentile £34.45 £30.65 £52.01
25th Percentile £41.13 £30.97 £55.02
Median hourly rate £54.50 £33.00 £60.04
Median % change year-on-year +65.15% -45.03% -7.64%
75th Percentile £60.25 £34.02 £65.05
90th Percentile £62.35 £34.31 £68.06
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £32.21 £70.07
% change year-on-year -6.85% -54.04% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 30,820 33,990 44,445
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.86% 92.88% 93.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,489 20,492 30,296
10th Percentile £280 £300 £300
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,712 1,308 1,539
10th Percentile £13.84 £15.05 £14.73
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £39.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.33% -12.22% +64.38%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.43 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £40.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -37.50% -10.11% +93.48%

UX Designer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'UX Designer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

UX Designer job vacancy trend in the UK

UX Designer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for UX Designer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for UX Designer job vacancies in the UK

UX Designer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing UX Designer over the 6 months to 28 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for UX Designer in the UK

UX Designer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for UX Designer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for UX Designer job vacancies in the UK

UX Designer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing UX Designer over the 6 months to 28 October 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for UX Designer in the UK

UX Designer
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 Designer within the UK over the 6 months to 28 October 2025. 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 -25 87 £456 -13.10% 124
London +7 55 £468 -11.46% 67
UK excluding London -32 41 £436 -0.34% 103
Work from Home -9 32 £425 -11.69% 76
North of England -27 18 £400 -25.58% 27
North West -14 12 £400 -33.33% 19
Scotland -6 8 £429 +4.51% 8
Yorkshire -31 5 - - 4
East of England -11 4 £425 -5.56% 4
Midlands -26 4 £405 +18.92% 3
South West +15 3 £650 +8.33% 10
West Midlands -15 3 £325 - 2
South East -12 2 £494 -5.95% 50
Wales - 2 £588 - 2
North East -6 1 £450 - 4
East Midlands -15 1 £485 +42.41% 1

UX Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 28 October 2025, UX Designer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring UX Designer in the job title.

1 109 (100.00%) User Experience
1 109 (100.00%) UX Design
2 60 (55.05%) Figma
3 48 (44.04%) User Research
4 40 (36.70%) Agile
5 38 (34.86%) Accessibility
6 36 (33.03%) Wireframes
7 35 (32.11%) Sketch
8 31 (28.44%) Interaction Design
9 30 (27.52%) Prototyping
10 28 (25.69%) Usability Testing
11 26 (23.85%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 21 (19.27%) Adobe
12 21 (19.27%) CSS
12 21 (19.27%) HTML
13 17 (15.60%) Axure RP
14 16 (14.68%) UX Research
15 14 (12.84%) Security Cleared
16 13 (11.93%) Workshop Facilitation
17 12 (11.01%) Adobe XD
17 12 (11.01%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
17 12 (11.01%) Service Design
18 11 (10.09%) Analytics
19 10 (9.17%) InVision
19 10 (9.17%) Problem-Solving
19 10 (9.17%) SC Cleared
20 9 (8.26%) Inclusive Design
20 9 (8.26%) WCAG
21 8 (7.34%) Android
21 8 (7.34%) Apple iOS

UX Designer Skill Set
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 4 (3.67%) CMS
1 4 (3.67%) Confluence
2 1 (0.92%) SharePoint
Applications
1 35 (32.11%) Sketch
2 12 (11.01%) Adobe XD
3 10 (9.17%) InVision
4 5 (4.59%) Adobe Illustrator
4 5 (4.59%) Photoshop
5 4 (3.67%) OmniGraffle
5 4 (3.67%) UXPin
6 3 (2.75%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (1.83%) Chatbot
7 2 (1.83%) Zeplin
8 1 (0.92%) Adobe Premiere
8 1 (0.92%) InDesign
8 1 (0.92%) Marvel
8 1 (0.92%) Microsoft Excel
8 1 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 1 (0.92%) Moqups
Business Applications
1 2 (1.83%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 60 (55.05%) Figma
2 7 (6.42%) SaaS
3 6 (5.50%) Miro
4 2 (1.83%) Adobe Creative Cloud
4 2 (1.83%) AWS
4 2 (1.83%) Contentful
4 2 (1.83%) GitHub
5 1 (0.92%) Azure
5 1 (0.92%) Dropbox
5 1 (0.92%) GCP
5 1 (0.92%) Google Analytics
5 1 (0.92%) Google Drive
5 1 (0.92%) Heroku
5 1 (0.92%) Power Platform
5 1 (0.92%) PowerApps
5 1 (0.92%) Slack
Development Applications
1 17 (15.60%) Axure RP
2 7 (6.42%) JIRA
3 4 (3.67%) Balsamiq
4 1 (0.92%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.92%) Git
4 1 (0.92%) Visual Studio
4 1 (0.92%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 36 (33.03%) Finance
2 30 (27.52%) Social Skills
3 19 (17.43%) Banking
4 11 (10.09%) Public Sector
5 4 (3.67%) Legal
6 3 (2.75%) Presentation Skills
6 3 (2.75%) Publishing
7 2 (1.83%) Analytical Skills
7 2 (1.83%) Automotive
7 2 (1.83%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.83%) Front Office
7 2 (1.83%) Marketing
7 2 (1.83%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.92%) Arabic Language
8 1 (0.92%) Investment Banking
8 1 (0.92%) Local Government
8 1 (0.92%) Military
8 1 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.92%) Retail
8 1 (0.92%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (19.27%) CSS
1 21 (19.27%) HTML
2 6 (5.50%) Framer.js
3 2 (1.83%) HTML5
3 2 (1.83%) Lightning Web Components
4 1 (0.92%) .NET
4 1 (0.92%) Blazor
4 1 (0.92%) CSS3
4 1 (0.92%) HTML5 Canvas
4 1 (0.92%) jQuery
4 1 (0.92%) Razor View Engine
4 1 (0.92%) React
4 1 (0.92%) Unreal Engine
Miscellaneous
1 14 (12.84%) Product Ownership
2 10 (9.17%) Mobile App
3 6 (5.50%) Onboarding
4 5 (4.59%) Management Information System
5 4 (3.67%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (2.75%) Digital Media
6 3 (2.75%) Web Conferencing
7 2 (1.83%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.83%) Low-Code
8 1 (0.92%) Animation
8 1 (0.92%) Client/Server
8 1 (0.92%) Embedded Systems
8 1 (0.92%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.92%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.92%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.92%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 8 (7.34%) Android
1 8 (7.34%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.92%) Mac OS
2 1 (0.92%) VMS
2 1 (0.92%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (100.00%) User Experience
1 109 (100.00%) UX Design
2 48 (44.04%) User Research
3 40 (36.70%) Agile
4 36 (33.03%) Wireframes
5 31 (28.44%) Interaction Design
6 30 (27.52%) Prototyping
7 28 (25.69%) Usability Testing
8 26 (23.85%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
9 16 (14.68%) UX Research
10 13 (11.93%) Workshop Facilitation
11 12 (11.01%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
11 12 (11.01%) Service Design
12 11 (10.09%) Analytics
13 10 (9.17%) Problem-Solving
14 9 (8.26%) Inclusive Design
15 8 (7.34%) Journey Map
16 7 (6.42%) Continuous Improvement
16 7 (6.42%) Stakeholder Management
17 6 (5.50%) AI
Programming Languages
1 8 (7.34%) JavaScript
2 1 (0.92%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 14 (12.84%) Security Cleared
2 10 (9.17%) SC Cleared
3 6 (5.50%) Degree
4 5 (4.59%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (1.83%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (34.86%) Accessibility
2 9 (8.26%) WCAG
3 1 (0.92%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (0.92%) GDPR
3 1 (0.92%) QA
Vendors
1 21 (19.27%) Adobe
2 8 (7.34%) Microsoft
2 8 (7.34%) Salesforce
3 4 (3.67%) Google
3 4 (3.67%) Hopewiser
4 2 (1.83%) Mercator
4 2 (1.83%) Virgin Media
5 1 (0.92%) Hotjar
5 1 (0.92%) Oracle
5 1 (0.92%) Palantir
5 1 (0.92%) Pega
5 1 (0.92%) SAP
5 1 (0.92%) ServiceNow