In defence of hard is a splendid post from P.J. Onori, over at Adaptive Path. He argues eloquently that simplifying the visually complex is an affront to the human capacity; that the tendency for treating people like idiots makes us idiots.

You are allowed to demand something of people: not everything is simple, and we should not pretend it is. To quote everyones favourite eccentric, Albert Einstein:

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.