UX Designer Contract Job Trends

User Experience Designer
UK

The median User Experience Designer daily rate in the UK is £463, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 February 2026.

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

 6 months to
25 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 460 429 436
Rank change year-on-year -31 +7 -34
Contract jobs requiring a UX Designer 141 109 159
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.34% 0.36% 0.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.37% 0.39% 0.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 71 95
10th Percentile £363 £338 £353
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% - -9.52%
75th Percentile £538 £563 £559
90th Percentile £588 £630 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £406 £400 £425
% change year-on-year +1.50% -5.88% -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 2
10th Percentile £51.77 £31.91 £52.13
25th Percentile £53.35 £32.52 £55.31
Median hourly rate £56.97 £33.54 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +69.86% -45.24% -
75th Percentile £60.85 £41.63 £67.81
90th Percentile £62.59 £45.90 £71.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £33.54 -

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 37,909 28,295 41,010
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.78% 92.89% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,822 17,724 26,992
10th Percentile £306 £293 £275
25th Percentile £408 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,307 828 2,328
10th Percentile £14.61 £16.43 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £32.50 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% - -10.88%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £71.93
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.11 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -7.37% -7.14% -2.78%

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 25 February 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 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 25 February 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 -50 120 £453 -9.05% 58
London -21 80 £489 -6.90% 29
UK excluding London -69 53 £406 +1.50% 41
Work from Home -19 32 £438 +9.38% 93
North of England -55 22 £388 -3.13% 5
North West -29 17 £388 -3.13% 5
Scotland +17 13 £493 +29.18% 2
South West -24 6 £382 +1.73% 6
South East -44 4 £450 -16.28% 18
East of England -20 3 £425 -8.11% 3
Midlands -60 3 £400 -1.23% 7
Yorkshire -62 3 £531 +13.27%
North East -14 2 £369 -
West Midlands -55 2 £400 -15.79% 6
Wales - 2 £588 -
East Midlands -29 1 £485 +39.26% 1

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

For the 6 months to 25 February 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.

1 141 (100.00%) User Experience
2 138 (97.87%) UX Design
3 82 (58.16%) Figma
4 70 (49.65%) User Research
5 54 (38.30%) Agile
5 54 (38.30%) Wireframes
6 53 (37.59%) Prototyping
7 51 (36.17%) Accessibility
8 47 (33.33%) Usability Testing
9 39 (27.66%) Interaction Design
10 38 (26.95%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 34 (24.11%) Sketch
12 28 (19.86%) UX Research
13 26 (18.44%) Adobe
14 24 (17.02%) Service Design
15 20 (14.18%) Adobe XD
15 20 (14.18%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
15 20 (14.18%) Journey Map
16 19 (13.48%) Analytics
17 18 (12.77%) CSS
17 18 (12.77%) HTML
17 18 (12.77%) Problem-Solving
17 18 (12.77%) WCAG
18 16 (11.35%) Axure RP
19 15 (10.64%) AI
20 14 (9.93%) Degree
20 14 (9.93%) Security Cleared
20 14 (9.93%) Workshop Facilitation
21 12 (8.51%) Design Thinking
21 12 (8.51%) E-Commerce

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 (2.84%) Confluence
2 1 (0.71%) CMS
2 1 (0.71%) SharePoint
Applications
1 34 (24.11%) Sketch
2 20 (14.18%) Adobe XD
3 10 (7.09%) InVision
4 3 (2.13%) Adobe Illustrator
4 3 (2.13%) Photoshop
5 2 (1.42%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (1.42%) OmniGraffle
6 1 (0.71%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.71%) InDesign
6 1 (0.71%) UserZoom
6 1 (0.71%) UXPin
Cloud Services
1 82 (58.16%) Figma
2 9 (6.38%) SaaS
3 5 (3.55%) Miro
4 3 (2.13%) Power Platform
4 3 (2.13%) PowerApps
5 2 (1.42%) ChatGPT
5 2 (1.42%) Contentful
6 1 (0.71%) Adobe Creative Cloud
6 1 (0.71%) AWS
6 1 (0.71%) Azure
6 1 (0.71%) Dropbox
6 1 (0.71%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (0.71%) GitHub
6 1 (0.71%) Google Analytics
6 1 (0.71%) Google Drive
6 1 (0.71%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.71%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.71%) Internet
1 1 (0.71%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.71%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 16 (11.35%) Axure RP
2 10 (7.09%) JIRA
3 2 (1.42%) Git
4 1 (0.71%) Balsamiq
4 1 (0.71%) Cypress.io
General
1 57 (40.43%) Social Skills
2 34 (24.11%) Finance
3 21 (14.89%) Banking
4 20 (14.18%) Public Sector
5 7 (4.96%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (4.96%) Presentation Skills
6 5 (3.55%) Retail
7 3 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (2.13%) Marketing
8 2 (1.42%) Financial Institution
8 2 (1.42%) Legal
8 2 (1.42%) Pharmaceutical
8 2 (1.42%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.42%) Wearables
9 1 (0.71%) Back Office
9 1 (0.71%) Billing
9 1 (0.71%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.71%) Local Government
9 1 (0.71%) Military
9 1 (0.71%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (12.77%) CSS
1 18 (12.77%) HTML
2 3 (2.13%) AngularJS
2 3 (2.13%) Framer.js
2 3 (2.13%) HTML5
2 3 (2.13%) React
3 2 (1.42%) CSS3
3 2 (1.42%) RESTful
4 1 (0.71%) Google Maps API
4 1 (0.71%) HTML5 Canvas
4 1 (0.71%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 15 (10.64%) Mobile App
2 13 (9.22%) Product Ownership
3 7 (4.96%) Onboarding
4 4 (2.84%) Data Protection Act
4 4 (2.84%) Digital Wallet
5 3 (2.13%) Digital Media
6 2 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (1.42%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.42%) Midjourney
6 2 (1.42%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 2 (1.42%) Virtual Team
7 1 (0.71%) Blog
7 1 (0.71%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.71%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 1 (0.71%) Graphic Design
7 1 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.71%) Low-Code
7 1 (0.71%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.71%) Social Media
7 1 (0.71%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.42%) Android
2 1 (0.71%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.71%) Mac OS
2 1 (0.71%) VMS
2 1 (0.71%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 141 (100.00%) User Experience
2 138 (97.87%) UX Design
3 70 (49.65%) User Research
4 54 (38.30%) Agile
4 54 (38.30%) Wireframes
5 53 (37.59%) Prototyping
6 47 (33.33%) Usability Testing
7 39 (27.66%) Interaction Design
8 38 (26.95%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
9 28 (19.86%) UX Research
10 24 (17.02%) Service Design
11 20 (14.18%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
11 20 (14.18%) Journey Map
12 19 (13.48%) Analytics
13 18 (12.77%) Problem-Solving
14 15 (10.64%) AI
15 14 (9.93%) Workshop Facilitation
16 12 (8.51%) Design Thinking
16 12 (8.51%) Inclusive Design
16 12 (8.51%) Information Architecture
Programming Languages
1 5 (3.55%) JavaScript
2 3 (2.13%) Korn
3 1 (0.71%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 14 (9.93%) Degree
1 14 (9.93%) Security Cleared
2 11 (7.80%) SC Cleared
3 3 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (1.42%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (36.17%) Accessibility
2 18 (12.77%) WCAG
3 2 (1.42%) QA
4 1 (0.71%) GDPR
Vendors
1 26 (18.44%) Adobe
2 6 (4.26%) Microsoft
3 4 (2.84%) Salesforce
4 3 (2.13%) Google
5 2 (1.42%) Hopewiser
5 2 (1.42%) MuleSoft
6 1 (0.71%) Hotjar
61 UX Designer jobs Nationwide