Simple actions: ways to help

The Simplification Centre exists to help make life simpler – we question why it has to be so hard to understand your mobile phone contract, your bank charges, your tenancy agreement, your tax, your benefits, or any of the other things that (a) really matter and (b) most people don’t understand.

Information designers have a lot to contribute, but we don’t always want to wait to be asked. So Simple Actions are clientless design projects – volunteer designers and writers offering solutions to whoever can use them. It’s done in the spirit of open source software and Wikipedia. In our Design for Good page we’ve listed some of the projects that have inspired us.

Our Simple Action days

If you are a designer, a writer or just someone who’s interested in make things simpler, why not come along to the next Simple Action day. Watch for announcements on Twitter (#simplecentre) .

Simple Action days are inspired by the hackathons you might know from the worlds of software and user experience. They bring people together to develop solutions in a short intensive time – often for non-profit motives.

See our Simple Action reports

Yes we can, just do it: pick your own catchphrase

Like the weather, it is easy to assume there’s nothing you can do about the fact that, for example, credit card agreements can be 30,000 words long, in 5pt type. But that’s rarely true – look out for Alan Siegel’s TED presentation. Problems only get solved because someone makes an effort – someone owns the problem and sorts it out.

Some of our solutions may just be a matter of putting right some simple faults – just doing it well. But we’re really looking for transformative ideas that challenge old assumptions.

Contact us