To me ’skill’ is a human ability that is performed with utmost ease.

Therefore, simplicity would be something which most human beings would be able to understand, do or learn with utmost ease.

Regards,
Dibyendu

so if we just always remind ourselves of this, as UX designers, our goal should always be how to make things easier, simpler and accessible to all. Sometimes, just a bigger font will make people’s life much easier. so let’s start with that.

Something you may already have read (but I suspect not, since you would probably have mentioned it here), is Stephen Wolfram’s A New Kind of Science (http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/toc.html). He’s a mathematician who has developed a fundamentally different approach to science, by focusing on the simple “programming” rules underlying an apparently complex universe. In the book, Wolfram writes:

“In everyday language, when we say that something seems complex what we typically mean is that we have not managed to find any simple description of it – or at least of those features of it in which we happen to be interested. But the goal of perception and analysis is precisely to find such descriptions, so when we say that something seems complex, what we are effectively saying is that our powers of perception and analysis have failed on it.”

Independently, you seem to be suggesting that the goal of UX designers is to find the elegant & simple in the complex; that when we produce the unnecessarily complex, we fail. I think you’re right, and I’d take it even further, to apply that not only to interface design and desired user behavior, but also to underlying taxonomies and technology. Basic building blocks allow the development of the most adaptable, flexible, simple interface, one that can be focused at the heart of any given user need.

Einstein pointed out in one of my favorite quotes, as both a support and a caution regarding Occam’s Razor: “Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Thanks for reminding us