UX Designer Contract Job Trends

User Experience Designer
UK

The median User Experience Designer daily rate in the UK is £465, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 442 431 445
Rank change year-on-year -11 +14 -109
Contract jobs requiring a UX Designer 115 131 189
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.35% 0.34% 0.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.37% 0.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 80 80 129
10th Percentile £312 £350 £325
25th Percentile £360 £411 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £504 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.78% -8.32% +2.33%
75th Percentile £525 £575 £626
90th Percentile £594 £639 £661
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £425 £475
% change year-on-year - -10.53% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 1
10th Percentile £34.45 £30.75 -
25th Percentile £41.13 £31.21 -
Median hourly rate £54.50 £32.21 £70.07
Median % change year-on-year +69.22% -54.04% +7.80%
75th Percentile £60.25 £32.98 -
90th Percentile £62.35 £33.32 -
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 30,009 35,817 46,695
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.07% 92.96% 94.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,949 22,029 31,957
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,585 1,680 1,499
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £14.99
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.50 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%
75th Percentile £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -44.11% +2.86% +98.86%

UX Designer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured UX Designer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for UX Designer 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 19 September 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 19 September 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 19 September 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 -5 94 £468 -10.95% 123
London -5 65 £468 -13.38% 61
UK excluding London +2 37 £425 - 93
Work from Home -5 31 £433 -12.41% 85
North of England -18 16 £393 -26.98% 22
North West 0 10 £360 -40.00% 16
Scotland -11 7 £400 -5.88% 4
Yorkshire -15 5 - - 3
Midlands -16 5 £325 -22.25% 4
West Midlands -6 3 £325 - 4
South West - 3 £600 - 11
East of England - 3 £413 - 2
East Midlands -8 2 £404 -3.47%
Wales - 2 £588 - 3
South East +5 1 £525 -3.67% 50
North East -2 1 £450 - 3

UX Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 September 2025, UX Designer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring UX Designer in the job title.

1 115 (100.00%) User Experience
2 114 (99.13%) UX Design
3 72 (62.61%) Figma
4 54 (46.96%) User Research
5 41 (35.65%) Finance
6 40 (34.78%) Prototyping
7 39 (33.91%) Social Skills
8 38 (33.04%) Sketch
8 38 (33.04%) Agile
9 37 (32.17%) Wireframes
10 36 (31.30%) Accessibility
11 32 (27.83%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 27 (23.48%) Usability Testing
12 27 (23.48%) Banking
13 25 (21.74%) Adobe
14 23 (20.00%) Interaction Design
15 21 (18.26%) Product Ownership
16 17 (14.78%) UX Research
16 17 (14.78%) Workshop Facilitation
16 17 (14.78%) HTML
16 17 (14.78%) CSS
16 17 (14.78%) Axure RP
17 14 (12.17%) Adobe XD
17 14 (12.17%) Service Design
17 14 (12.17%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
18 13 (11.30%) Problem-Solving
18 13 (11.30%) Analytics
19 12 (10.43%) Inclusive Design
20 11 (9.57%) Journey Map
20 11 (9.57%) Mobile App

UX Designer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 4 (3.48%) CMS
1 4 (3.48%) Confluence
2 1 (0.87%) Moodle
2 1 (0.87%) SharePoint
Applications
1 38 (33.04%) Sketch
2 14 (12.17%) Adobe XD
3 8 (6.96%) InVision
4 5 (4.35%) Adobe Illustrator
4 5 (4.35%) Photoshop
5 4 (3.48%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 4 (3.48%) OmniGraffle
5 4 (3.48%) UXPin
6 2 (1.74%) Chatbot
6 2 (1.74%) Microsoft Excel
6 2 (1.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 2 (1.74%) Zeplin
7 1 (0.87%) Adobe Premiere
7 1 (0.87%) Camtasia
7 1 (0.87%) InDesign
7 1 (0.87%) Marvel
7 1 (0.87%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.87%) Moqups
Business Applications
1 2 (1.74%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 72 (62.61%) Figma
2 8 (6.96%) SaaS
3 4 (3.48%) Miro
4 3 (2.61%) AWS
4 3 (2.61%) Azure
5 2 (1.74%) Adobe Creative Cloud
5 2 (1.74%) GitHub
5 2 (1.74%) Google Analytics
6 1 (0.87%) Dropbox
6 1 (0.87%) GCP
6 1 (0.87%) Google Drive
6 1 (0.87%) Heroku
6 1 (0.87%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.87%) Slack
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.74%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 17 (14.78%) Axure RP
2 6 (5.22%) JIRA
3 4 (3.48%) Balsamiq
4 1 (0.87%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.87%) Git
4 1 (0.87%) Visual Studio
4 1 (0.87%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 41 (35.65%) Finance
2 39 (33.91%) Social Skills
3 27 (23.48%) Banking
4 7 (6.09%) Public Sector
5 4 (3.48%) Legal
5 4 (3.48%) Presentation Skills
5 4 (3.48%) Retail
6 3 (2.61%) Corporate Banking
6 3 (2.61%) Investment Banking
6 3 (2.61%) Organisational Skills
6 3 (2.61%) Publishing
6 3 (2.61%) Retail Banking
7 2 (1.74%) Analytical Skills
7 2 (1.74%) Automotive
7 2 (1.74%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.74%) Front Office
7 2 (1.74%) Local Government
7 2 (1.74%) Marketing
8 1 (0.87%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.87%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (14.78%) CSS
1 17 (14.78%) HTML
2 4 (3.48%) Framer.js
2 4 (3.48%) React
3 2 (1.74%) Lightning Web Components
4 1 (0.87%) .NET
4 1 (0.87%) Blazor
4 1 (0.87%) CSS3
4 1 (0.87%) HTML5
4 1 (0.87%) jQuery
4 1 (0.87%) Razor View Engine
4 1 (0.87%) Unreal Engine
Miscellaneous
1 21 (18.26%) Product Ownership
2 11 (9.57%) Mobile App
3 8 (6.96%) Onboarding
4 4 (3.48%) Management Information System
5 3 (2.61%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (2.61%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.74%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (1.74%) Educational Technology
6 2 (1.74%) Learning Management System
6 2 (1.74%) Low-Code
7 1 (0.87%) 3D Graphics
7 1 (0.87%) Animation
7 1 (0.87%) Client/Server
7 1 (0.87%) Digital Media
7 1 (0.87%) e-Learning
7 1 (0.87%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.87%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.87%) Taxonomies
7 1 (0.87%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 10 (8.70%) Android
1 10 (8.70%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.87%) Mac OS
2 1 (0.87%) VMS
2 1 (0.87%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 115 (100.00%) User Experience
2 114 (99.13%) UX Design
3 54 (46.96%) User Research
4 40 (34.78%) Prototyping
5 38 (33.04%) Agile
6 37 (32.17%) Wireframes
7 32 (27.83%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 27 (23.48%) Usability Testing
9 23 (20.00%) Interaction Design
10 17 (14.78%) UX Research
10 17 (14.78%) Workshop Facilitation
11 14 (12.17%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
11 14 (12.17%) Service Design
12 13 (11.30%) Analytics
12 13 (11.30%) Problem-Solving
13 12 (10.43%) Inclusive Design
14 11 (9.57%) Journey Map
15 9 (7.83%) Design Thinking
15 9 (7.83%) Information Architecture
16 8 (6.96%) Storytelling
Programming Languages
1 11 (9.57%) JavaScript
2 2 (1.74%) Python
3 1 (0.87%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 11 (9.57%) Security Cleared
2 7 (6.09%) SC Cleared
3 5 (4.35%) BPSS Clearance
4 4 (3.48%) Degree
5 2 (1.74%) DV Cleared
6 1 (0.87%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (31.30%) Accessibility
2 8 (6.96%) WCAG
3 4 (3.48%) QA
4 1 (0.87%) Disclosure Scotland
Vendors
1 25 (21.74%) Adobe
2 10 (8.70%) Microsoft
3 9 (7.83%) Salesforce
4 5 (4.35%) Google
5 4 (3.48%) Hopewiser
6 2 (1.74%) Hotjar
6 2 (1.74%) Mercator
6 2 (1.74%) Virgin Media
7 1 (0.87%) Oracle
7 1 (0.87%) Palantir
7 1 (0.87%) Pega
7 1 (0.87%) SAP
7 1 (0.87%) ServiceNow