If UX was simple everyone would do it. And if everyone could do it, who would really want to?

Title: When It Comes to UX Design, Simplicity Is Overrated
Context: Simplicity is in the eye of the beholder. Clarity is universal.
Synopsis: Einstein once said something clever about simplicity and making things as simple as possible but no simpler than that. People love Einstein. He was a cool guy and all, but let’s face it, his idea of simplicity and the average person’s are going to be quite different. But clarity, that’s another story. What an expert might find simple, an amateur (or non-Einstein) most likely would not. Yet, while a layman might not be able to grasp the “simplicity” of say, oh, the space-time continuum, the same dense concept could be made “clear” to the same non-expert by changing the expectations around what can pass for understanding. Highly dense information simply cannot be made simple to all people, but the methods with which to traverse the details can be made clear to almost anyone through a variety of methods of architecting the content to make it more suitable to audiences of differing ability, context, and understanding. Universal simplicity is a mirage we chase because it’s the expectation that we are told everyone has of everything they use when in fact minimization of effort—or maximized simplicity—pales in comparison to minimization of confusion—or maximized clarity.
Best Bit: “Practically every designer who’s used an iPhone relies on it as the hallmark example of simplicity. This is absurd.”

via wired.com