Simplicity is not removing things, it is organising them

Projects where simplicity was interpreted as cutting things out would often look cleaner, but not necessarily work better. In some cases, they created new problems: information people relied on had disappeared, or decisions became harder because contextglossary×ContextThe surrounding conditions that shape behaviour and decisions.Open glossary term→ was missing. What looked simple was actually incomplete.

Most products aren't simple because the problems they solve aren't simple. Pricing modelsglossary×ModelA model is a system or representation used to process data and generate outputs, often trained to perform specific tasks.Open glossary term→, compliance requirements, different user needs, edge casesglossary×Edge CaseAn edge case is a rare or extreme scenario that falls outside typical user behaviour.Open glossary term→, systemglossary×SystemA system is a collection of interconnected components that work together to achieve a specific function or outcome.Open glossary term→ constraints — none of that goes away because you want a cleaner interface. Trying to remove it entirely usually just pushes the problem somewhere else.

On one project, users were being shown too much too early, with multiple decisions presented upfront. The instinct was to remove options. What actually helped was reorganising the flow so those decisions appeared when they were relevant, not all at once. Nothing was removed, but the experience became easier because it was better sequenced.

In another, content had grown over time and become difficult to navigate. The answer wasn't to delete large parts of it, but to restructure how it was organised so users could find what they needed without being overwhelmed by everything else.

That's usually where simplicity comes from. Not from taking things away, but from putting things in the right place.

Working with the NHS, hundreds of sites, different teams, and inconsistent approaches had created an experience that felt complex and fragmented. The solution wasn't to strip content back indiscriminately — it was to rebuild the structure so it was consistent, reusable, and aligned to how users actually looked for information. Once that was in place, the experience felt simpler without losing what was important.

With Travelbag, booking a holiday involves a lot of detail: options, pricing, availability, choices that affect the outcome. Removing those things isn't realistic, but presenting them all at once creates hesitation. Breaking that complexity into stages, and introducing information at the right moment, makes the experience far more manageable. Nothing disappears. It's just organised properly.

What users experience as simplicity is usually just clarityglossary×ClarityClarity is how easily users can understand what is happening and what they need to do.Open glossary term→. They know what to do. They understand what's happening. They aren't being asked to processglossary×ProcessA process is a defined sequence of steps used to achieve a specific outcome.Open glossary term→ more than they need to at any one time. That's what makes something feel easy.

The biggest gains rarely come from removing things. They come from stepping back and asking how everything fits together, what needs to be seen when, and how the experience can be shaped so it supports the user rather than overwhelming them. Because simplicity isn't about having less. It's about making what's there work properly.