UX Designer Contract Job Trends

User Experience Designer
UK

The median User Experience Designer daily rate in the UK is £468, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 December 2025.

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

6 months to
24 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 464 420 469
Rank change year-on-year -44 +49 -97
Contract jobs requiring a UX Designer 122 134 121
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.39% 0.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.43% 0.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 84 89 79
10th Percentile £361 £340 £325
25th Percentile £400 £381 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £468 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.45% - -7.41%
75th Percentile £532 £575 £581
90th Percentile £588 £650 £631
UK excluding London median daily rate £413 £410 £450
% change year-on-year +0.61% -8.89% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 3
10th Percentile £34.45 £30.65 £54.01
25th Percentile £41.13 £30.97 £60.04
Median hourly rate £54.50 £33.00 £70.07
Median % change year-on-year +65.15% -52.90% -
75th Percentile £60.25 £34.02 £71.91
90th Percentile £62.35 £34.31 £73.01
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 33,689 31,494 40,397
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.07% 92.77% 93.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,297 19,365 27,107
10th Percentile £293 £300 £285
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £640
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,984 978 1,483
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.50 £15.02
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.01 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.25 £33.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.48% -26.67% +45.77%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.54 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -22.62% -29.62% +84.72%

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 24 December 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 24 December 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 24 December 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 -34 102 £468 -10.95% 149
London -29 58 £485 -7.62% 35
UK excluding London -29 54 £413 +0.61% 134
Work from Home -24 30 £400 -11.11% 129
North of England -36 24 £388 -4.62% 37
North West -18 16 £388 +40.91% 22
Scotland +4 9 £429 +10.58% 7
Midlands -42 6 £400 +12.36% 16
East of England -11 5 £425 -5.56% 16
West Midlands -23 5 £400 -30.43% 11
Yorkshire -36 5 £531 -1.16% 12
South West -3 4 £650 +65.08% 22
South East -20 4 £463 -9.76% 30
North East -5 3 £410 - 3
Wales - 2 £588 - 2
East Midlands -17 1 £485 +39.26% 5

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

For the 6 months to 24 December 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.

1 122 (100.00%) User Experience
1 122 (100.00%) UX Design
2 69 (56.56%) Figma
3 61 (50.00%) User Research
4 44 (36.07%) Agile
5 43 (35.25%) Accessibility
6 42 (34.43%) Usability Testing
7 40 (32.79%) Prototyping
7 40 (32.79%) Wireframes
8 36 (29.51%) Sketch
9 34 (27.87%) Interaction Design
9 34 (27.87%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
10 25 (20.49%) Adobe
11 23 (18.85%) Service Design
11 23 (18.85%) UX Research
12 20 (16.39%) CSS
12 20 (16.39%) HTML
13 16 (13.11%) Axure RP
14 15 (12.30%) Adobe XD
14 15 (12.30%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
14 15 (12.30%) Security Cleared
15 13 (10.66%) Analytics
15 13 (10.66%) Workshop Facilitation
16 12 (9.84%) InVision
16 12 (9.84%) Problem-Solving
17 11 (9.02%) Journey Map
17 11 (9.02%) WCAG
18 10 (8.20%) SC Cleared
19 9 (7.38%) Continuous Improvement
19 9 (7.38%) 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 (3.28%) CMS
2 3 (2.46%) Confluence
3 2 (1.64%) SharePoint
Applications
1 36 (29.51%) Sketch
2 15 (12.30%) Adobe XD
3 12 (9.84%) InVision
4 4 (3.28%) Adobe Illustrator
4 4 (3.28%) Photoshop
5 3 (2.46%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (2.46%) OmniGraffle
6 2 (1.64%) UXPin
6 2 (1.64%) Zeplin
7 1 (0.82%) Adobe Premiere
7 1 (0.82%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.82%) InDesign
7 1 (0.82%) Marvel
7 1 (0.82%) Moqups
Business Applications
1 2 (1.64%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 69 (56.56%) Figma
2 8 (6.56%) SaaS
3 7 (5.74%) Miro
4 3 (2.46%) Power Platform
4 3 (2.46%) PowerApps
5 2 (1.64%) Adobe Creative Cloud
5 2 (1.64%) Contentful
5 2 (1.64%) GitHub
5 2 (1.64%) Google Analytics
6 1 (0.82%) AWS
6 1 (0.82%) Azure
6 1 (0.82%) Dropbox
6 1 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (0.82%) Google Drive
6 1 (0.82%) Heroku
6 1 (0.82%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.82%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.82%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.82%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 16 (13.11%) Axure RP
2 7 (5.74%) JIRA
3 3 (2.46%) Git
4 2 (1.64%) Balsamiq
5 1 (0.82%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.82%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.82%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 39 (31.97%) Social Skills
2 34 (27.87%) Finance
3 21 (17.21%) Banking
4 12 (9.84%) Public Sector
5 4 (3.28%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (3.28%) Legal
5 4 (3.28%) Marketing
5 4 (3.28%) Presentation Skills
6 3 (2.46%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (2.46%) Publishing
7 2 (1.64%) Automotive
7 2 (1.64%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.64%) Front Office
7 2 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.64%) Pharmaceutical
7 2 (1.64%) Retail
7 2 (1.64%) Wearables
8 1 (0.82%) Arabic Language
8 1 (0.82%) Digital Health
8 1 (0.82%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (16.39%) CSS
1 20 (16.39%) HTML
2 4 (3.28%) Framer.js
2 4 (3.28%) HTML5
3 3 (2.46%) AngularJS
3 3 (2.46%) CSS3
3 3 (2.46%) Lightning Web Components
3 3 (2.46%) React
4 2 (1.64%) RESTful
5 1 (0.82%) .NET
5 1 (0.82%) Blazor
5 1 (0.82%) HTML5 Canvas
5 1 (0.82%) jQuery
5 1 (0.82%) Razor View Engine
5 1 (0.82%) Unreal Engine
Miscellaneous
1 14 (11.48%) Mobile App
2 11 (9.02%) Product Ownership
3 7 (5.74%) Onboarding
4 3 (2.46%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (2.46%) Digital Media
5 2 (1.64%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (1.64%) Digital Wallet
5 2 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.64%) Low-Code
6 1 (0.82%) Blog
6 1 (0.82%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.82%) Embedded Systems
6 1 (0.82%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (0.82%) Graphic Design
6 1 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.82%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.82%) Social Media
6 1 (0.82%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (0.82%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.64%) Android
1 2 (1.64%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.82%) Mac OS
2 1 (0.82%) VMS
2 1 (0.82%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (100.00%) User Experience
1 122 (100.00%) UX Design
2 61 (50.00%) User Research
3 44 (36.07%) Agile
4 42 (34.43%) Usability Testing
5 40 (32.79%) Prototyping
5 40 (32.79%) Wireframes
6 34 (27.87%) Interaction Design
6 34 (27.87%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
7 23 (18.85%) Service Design
7 23 (18.85%) UX Research
8 15 (12.30%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
9 13 (10.66%) Analytics
9 13 (10.66%) Workshop Facilitation
10 12 (9.84%) Problem-Solving
11 11 (9.02%) Journey Map
12 9 (7.38%) Continuous Improvement
12 9 (7.38%) E-Commerce
13 8 (6.56%) Human-Centred Design
13 8 (6.56%) Responsive Web Design
Programming Languages
1 7 (5.74%) JavaScript
2 1 (0.82%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 15 (12.30%) Security Cleared
2 10 (8.20%) SC Cleared
3 8 (6.56%) Degree
4 3 (2.46%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (1.64%) DV Cleared
6 1 (0.82%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (35.25%) Accessibility
2 11 (9.02%) WCAG
3 2 (1.64%) QA
4 1 (0.82%) GDPR
Vendors
1 25 (20.49%) Adobe
2 9 (7.38%) Microsoft
3 8 (6.56%) Salesforce
4 5 (4.10%) Google
5 4 (3.28%) Hopewiser
6 2 (1.64%) Hotjar
6 2 (1.64%) Mercator
6 2 (1.64%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.82%) Oracle
7 1 (0.82%) Palantir
7 1 (0.82%) SAP
7 1 (0.82%) ServiceNow
7 1 (0.82%) Virgin Media