UX Designer Contract Job Trends

User Experience Designer
UK

The median User Experience Designer daily rate in the UK is £453, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 11 March 2026.

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

 6 months to
11 Mar 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 486 426 454
Rank change year-on-year -60 +28 -66
Contract jobs requiring a UX Designer 133 100 153
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.34% 0.34%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.36% 0.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 70 96
10th Percentile £364 £338 £325
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £453 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year -4.74% +2.70% -11.90%
75th Percentile £528 £565 £550
90th Percentile £581 £650 £588
UK excluding London median daily rate £402 £400 £413
% change year-on-year +0.50% -3.03% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 2
10th Percentile £51.77 £32.98 £52.13
25th Percentile £53.35 £35.19 £55.31
Median hourly rate £56.97 £40.25 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +41.54% -34.29% +36.11%
75th Percentile £60.85 £45.19 £67.81
90th Percentile £62.59 £47.33 £71.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 39,127 27,402 41,559
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.94% 92.96% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,467 17,684 27,246
10th Percentile £312 £293 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,427 859 2,507
10th Percentile £14.93 £15.62 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.40 £32.69
Median % change year-on-year +4.79% +2.17% -22.84%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.16 £76.44 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.95 £32.50 £32.70
% change year-on-year +7.52% -0.60% -18.26%

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 11 March 2026.

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
Top 14 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 11 March 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 -63 115 £450 -9.09% 60
London -13 76 £498 -5.24% 35
UK excluding London -75 49 £402 +0.50% 39
Work from Home -31 32 £413 +3.13% 47
North of England -58 22 £388 -3.13% 10
North West -27 18 £388 -3.13% 8
Scotland +20 12 £509 +31.29% 4
South West -17 6 £382 +1.73% 2
South East -45 4 £450 -16.28% 15
East of England -24 3 £425 -10.53% 4
North East -11 2 £369 - 1
West Midlands -58 2 £400 -15.79% 1
Yorkshire -68 2 £531 +32.65% 1
Midlands -70 2 £400 +5.12% 1

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

For the 6 months to 11 March 2026, 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.

1 133 (100.00%) User Experience
2 130 (97.74%) UX Design
3 75 (56.39%) Figma
4 61 (45.86%) User Research
5 52 (39.10%) Agile
5 52 (39.10%) Wireframes
6 49 (36.84%) Accessibility
6 49 (36.84%) Prototyping
7 41 (30.83%) Usability Testing
8 38 (28.57%) Interaction Design
9 34 (25.56%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
10 29 (21.80%) UX Research
11 28 (21.05%) Sketch
12 23 (17.29%) Adobe
12 23 (17.29%) Service Design
13 20 (15.04%) Journey Map
14 19 (14.29%) Adobe XD
15 18 (13.53%) CSS
15 18 (13.53%) HTML
15 18 (13.53%) Problem-Solving
16 17 (12.78%) WCAG
17 16 (12.03%) Analytics
17 16 (12.03%) Axure RP
17 16 (12.03%) Degree
17 16 (12.03%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
18 15 (11.28%) AI
18 15 (11.28%) Workshop Facilitation
19 14 (10.53%) Design Thinking
20 13 (9.77%) Information Architecture
20 13 (9.77%) Security Cleared

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 2 (1.50%) Confluence
2 1 (0.75%) SharePoint
Applications
1 28 (21.05%) Sketch
2 19 (14.29%) Adobe XD
3 10 (7.52%) InVision
4 3 (2.26%) Adobe Illustrator
4 3 (2.26%) Photoshop
5 2 (1.50%) OmniGraffle
6 1 (0.75%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.75%) InDesign
6 1 (0.75%) UserZoom
6 1 (0.75%) UXPin
Cloud Services
1 75 (56.39%) Figma
2 6 (4.51%) SaaS
3 5 (3.76%) Miro
4 4 (3.01%) Power Platform
5 3 (2.26%) PowerApps
6 2 (1.50%) ChatGPT
6 2 (1.50%) Contentful
7 1 (0.75%) Adobe Creative Cloud
7 1 (0.75%) Azure
7 1 (0.75%) Dropbox
7 1 (0.75%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.75%) GitHub
7 1 (0.75%) Google Analytics
7 1 (0.75%) Google Drive
7 1 (0.75%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.75%) Internet
1 1 (0.75%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.75%) Metadata
1 1 (0.75%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 16 (12.03%) Axure RP
2 8 (6.02%) JIRA
3 2 (1.50%) Git
4 1 (0.75%) Balsamiq
General
1 49 (36.84%) Social Skills
2 29 (21.80%) Finance
3 22 (16.54%) Banking
4 21 (15.79%) Public Sector
5 8 (6.02%) Presentation Skills
6 5 (3.76%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (3.76%) Retail
7 3 (2.26%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (2.26%) Marketing
8 2 (1.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.50%) Pharmaceutical
8 2 (1.50%) Retail Banking
8 2 (1.50%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.50%) Wearables
9 1 (0.75%) Back Office
9 1 (0.75%) Billing
9 1 (0.75%) Corporate Banking
9 1 (0.75%) Digital Health
9 1 (0.75%) Digital Healthcare
9 1 (0.75%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (13.53%) CSS
1 18 (13.53%) HTML
2 3 (2.26%) AngularJS
2 3 (2.26%) Framer.js
2 3 (2.26%) HTML5
3 2 (1.50%) CSS3
3 2 (1.50%) React
3 2 (1.50%) RESTful
4 1 (0.75%) Google Maps API
4 1 (0.75%) HTML5 Canvas
4 1 (0.75%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 15 (11.28%) Mobile App
1 15 (11.28%) Product Ownership
2 6 (4.51%) Onboarding
3 4 (3.01%) Data Protection Act
3 4 (3.01%) Digital Wallet
4 3 (2.26%) Graphic Design
4 3 (2.26%) Team-Oriented Environment
5 2 (1.50%) Digital Media
5 2 (1.50%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.50%) Midjourney
5 2 (1.50%) Virtual Team
6 1 (0.75%) Blog
6 1 (0.75%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.75%) Low-Code
6 1 (0.75%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.75%) Social Media
6 1 (0.75%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.50%) Android
2 1 (0.75%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.75%) Mac OS
2 1 (0.75%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (100.00%) User Experience
2 130 (97.74%) UX Design
3 61 (45.86%) User Research
4 52 (39.10%) Agile
4 52 (39.10%) Wireframes
5 49 (36.84%) Prototyping
6 41 (30.83%) Usability Testing
7 38 (28.57%) Interaction Design
8 34 (25.56%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
9 29 (21.80%) UX Research
10 23 (17.29%) Service Design
11 20 (15.04%) Journey Map
12 18 (13.53%) Problem-Solving
13 16 (12.03%) Analytics
13 16 (12.03%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
14 15 (11.28%) AI
14 15 (11.28%) Workshop Facilitation
15 14 (10.53%) Design Thinking
16 13 (9.77%) Information Architecture
17 12 (9.02%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (3.76%) JavaScript
2 3 (2.26%) Korn
Qualifications
1 16 (12.03%) Degree
2 13 (9.77%) Security Cleared
3 9 (6.77%) SC Cleared
4 2 (1.50%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (1.50%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (36.84%) Accessibility
2 17 (12.78%) WCAG
3 2 (1.50%) QA
4 1 (0.75%) GDPR
Vendors
1 23 (17.29%) Adobe
2 5 (3.76%) Salesforce
3 4 (3.01%) Microsoft
4 3 (2.26%) Google
5 2 (1.50%) MuleSoft
6 1 (0.75%) Hotjar
71 UX Designer jobs Nationwide