The Simplification Centre was formed in 2008, and closed in 2024. Starting as a university research centre in 2008, it became an educational charity in 2011. It was set up to challenge poor communication, particularly in health, the law and government. Our mission was to research, advocate, educate and demonstrate.
The Simplification Centre was launched at the University of Reading in 2008, based in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, a leading UK centre for research and teaching. You can read more about our time within the university in this report: The first two years: 2009-2010.
Organisations we helped during our time at Reading and since include: HM Revenue & Customs, Department of Work & Pensions, Office for Students, NHS, Aegon, AXA, HM Prison Service, National Government of Wales.
We also took part in many conferences and training events, and were central to the organisation of several of the later Information Design Conferences – part of the series of conferences with that name that took place in the UK from the 1980s onwards.
We became an independent non-profit from 1 April 2011, working to help organisations develop the skills and processes for clearer communication. We were influential in the development of legal information design, running the Clearer Legal Information conference in 2014, and working with World CC, the organisation for contracting professionals.
Since 2013, the Information Design Summer School has helped many people make the transition to information design. It attracted an international audience to our courses in Bath, UK and lately online. Participants included many lawyers, technical writers, graphic designers, textbook writers, and civil servants tasked with communicating with the public.
The Simplification Centre was coordinated by Rob Waller, supported by two trustees Alan Wells OBE (founder of the Basic Skills Agency) and Clive Richards (Emeritus Professor at Birmingham City University).
Sometimes we mean simplifying the information itself at the surface – clearer language, well-signalled arguments, coherent explanations. Or it may mean simplifying the content – for example, the underlying process or system which the information tries to convey. Or it may mean simplifying the reader's task: providing helps, better navigation, more legible fonts, and better layout.
One thing we were always clear about is that simplicity isn't just about appearance. Something can look simple but be very hard to use because it hides important detail – rather like those modernist kitchens where there is no clutter or mess, but also no handles on the doors and no clue which door hides the fridge.
Simplification is closely related to information design, and that's where the core skills of the simplifier can be found. Information designers apply what has become known as 'design thinking' to content, to language, and to layout.
This article in the design theory journal She Ji sets out our philosophy and background.
