Hi! I’m Richard Simms, a partner, dad, designer, founder, and writer from the UK now living in Melbourne, Australia.

I’m passionate about taking new ideas from 0 to 1 and empowering jobseekers to make great career decisions at SEEK. Before that, I led the design practice at Open Universities Australia, designed native mobile apps for Suncorp bank, and led experience design for a leading London creative agency.

I grew up in North Yorkshire in the UK. With my father, who was an agricultural engineer. I spent many a school holidays watching him working hard to continually raise the standard of living and determination to create a better life for us. In my teenage years my life drastically changed as I suffered from years of abuse, however around the age of 13, I got access to a family computer. When I was 14, Photoshop was release for Windows and I found solitude and an escape from my trauma in creating. When I got to college, I discovered design.

As I was finishing a Masters in Computer Animation, I was fortunate to land a job with the UK broadcaster Channel 4 creating graphics for late night shows. Which led me to a job working for a software company that created broadcast overlays, augmented graphic overlays and virtual reality TV sets. There I got to travel the world for work, work on major sporting events and designing 3D and 2D templates that were used live in broadcast. This combination suited the twenty-something version of me, until I discovered User Experience Design and the ability to give my work more meaning, by measuring its impact. I made a career pivot into agencies, designing websites and apps. I’ve worked with some wonderful people in my career of 17 years thus far. 

“I stumbled into this career, it saved me, gave me purpose, an escape, and the ability to help others. I’m truly grateful for design as a career and the way that it’s impacted my life. I do it for the love, it just so happens that I’m also good at it and people find what I do valuable.”

I’m met my partner Kate in London, before moving back to her home town of Melbourne. Where we’ve been able to provide a great life for our children, Harvey and Audrey. We’ve enjoyed many great experiences together, from playing in the sand of some of the world’s most beautiful beaches to gazing at the Northern Lights in Iceland. Together, Kate and I built a not-for-profit marketplace for volunteers to make scrubs (uniforms) for healthcare heroes in response to COVID-19 in Australia. 

Continuous discovery habits forms the foundation and informs my work now. I’ve honed my skills as an active listener and critical thinker, my research practice evolves around asking open-ended and specific questions to unearth critical information. I love nothing more than to co-designing with customers to identify and solve their most difficult problems. Through prototyping and testing business ideas, I increase confidence, move closer to our outcomes and create better experiences that people are willing to change their behaviour for.

Recently, I began writing about leadership, management, and career advice to UX and product professionals. When I’m not hanging out with my family and friends or designing, you can find me on a bike, riding through the Australian bush or at least finding my Zen on Beach Road, Melbourne, AU.

If you’re looking to learn more about growing as a designer, start with my free newsletter. And, if you have any additional questions, you can email me directly.