Simplicity in design is not the absence of complexity; it is the art of making it manageable. To simplify is not to strip away reality, but to organize how it is read so that we can act without getting lost.

John Maeda (The Laws of Simplicity, 2006) formulated a famous law: simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful. Removing the clutter, yes, but also bringing to light what truly matters. Simplicity is not poverty; it is a hard-won clarity over complexity.

For there are two ways to "keep it simple," and everything hinges on the distinction. The right way simplifies: it absorbs complexity on the designer's side to spare the user, like a crystal-clear interface that conceals sophisticated mechanics. The wrong way simplifies by mutilating: it denies the complexity of reality, cuts out edge cases, dismisses exceptions, and produces the simplistic—a tidy solution that only works on paper. To simplify without betraying is demanding; to impoverish is easy, and often masquerades as simplicity.

This is precisely the meaning of the concept so close to our hearts: simplexity. Neuroscientist Alain Berthoz (Simplexity, 2009) uses it to describe the elegant solutions that living organisms invent to act quickly and accurately in a complex world, without denying its nature. Simplexity is not cut-rate simplicity: it is tamed complexity, put at the service of action.

This is our very promise, "in all simplexity": to transform strategic and operational complexity into simple, high-impact actions, without ever pretending that complexity doesn't exist. Making the complex simple, without making it false.

What's happening elsewhere: systemic design (embracing complexity), cognition and cognitive load, UI, usability, and information design.

References: J. Maeda, The Laws of Simplicity (2006); A. Berthoz, Simplexity (2009).