We have decided to close the Simplification Centre sixteen years after we started work in 2008. We stopped seeking new consultancy work and training two years ago, and our sole activity is now the Information Design Summer School. This has moved to the International Institute for Information Design (IIID) from 2025. IIID has been a partner in the summer school from the beginning.
This website will remain open as an archive, and we may add some resources from the summer school such as presentations.
You can read more about the history of the Centre, and our approach to clear communications, in this article in the design journal She Ji.
In an effort to improve human rights and environmental issues in supply chains, a set of model contract clauses has been drafted, setting up structures for Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD). A team from our summer school responded to a public consultation with suggestions about plain language and clear design.
Read on...I asked ChatGPT to assess its on capabilities and limitations for drafting business contracts. The results were disarmingly self-aware.
Read on...The Home Office in the UK is planning to use a long, poorly written questionnaire to process applications for asylum, in place of an interview. They hope to clear up a large backlog this way, but the form is pretty terrible.
Read on...