Simple Is Harder Than Ever

Simplicity has always been difficult (Steve Jobs thought so too), even if we don't always acknowledge it. It's tempting to believe that clarity should come naturally, but in practice, it rarely does.

Today, simplicity isn't just hard. It's harder than ever.

As AI dramatically lowers the cost of creating, iterating and shipping, our products are becoming more capable, but also more complex. Every new feature, personalized experience and AI-powered interaction has the potential to add value, but it also adds cognitive load, inconsistency and friction.

The challenge is no longer whether we can build something. It's whether we should.

Like entropy, complexity naturally accumulates unless we actively shape it.

This talk explores why one of the most valuable roles of design is to bring clarity and coherence to that growth.

Drawing on lessons from leading design teams and building products at scale, we'll look at why complexity is the default outcome, why organizations struggle to manage it and how craft is increasingly defined not just by what we create, but by how we shape it into something people can actually understand and use.