Shifted Burden of Complexity

Definition

Complexity does not disappear; it shifts. When you simplify a process for the user, you often move the burden to the operator or manufacturer. When you simplify for one stakeholder, another bears the cost. Rule 10 makes this explicit: "For whose sake is the simplicity being designed? Who is going to benefit from the simplicity?"

In the Book

De Bono illustrates this throughout. A self-focusing camera is simpler to use but far more complex as a mechanism. A form designed for ease of reading by the filler may be harder for the processor to scan and extract data from. De Bono notes: "For whose convenience are forms designed? Are they designed for the convenience of those reading the forms and acting upon the forms? Or are forms designed for ease of understanding and ease of co-operation from those filling in the forms? The two are very rarely the same thing."

He cites the USA immigration forms: long before accepting the day-month-year date format used by most of the world, the forms forced millions of foreign visitors to reverse their date convention. It would have been simpler to train the few form processors than to expect millions of visitors to adapt. But this was a choice about who should bear the burden.

A restaurant that charges by time instead of by dish simplifies inventory and maximizes turnover but makes dining a rushed experience. Electronic toll systems eliminate toll booths but shift responsibility to drivers to carry transponders and manage accounts. De Bono emphasizes: "A shift of complexity may mean that a system is made very much easier for the customer but much more complicated for the operator. It more often happens the other way round."

Why It Matters

This concept forces design decisions out of the abstract and into the political: who wins and who loses when you simplify? It explains why many "simplified" systems feel friction-laden—they simplified for the designer or operator, not the user. It also reveals that effective simplification requires clear articulation of whose world you are actually simplifying, and it may require difficult trade-offs in whose interests take priority.