I’ll bet every developer I know has uttered the words, “keep it simple,” but the truth is it’s just not that easy. Simplicity is not the default state of information and processes. More often the opposite holds true, and chaos is the natural order of things, so to speak. Information and processes are made simple only by thoughtful, effective organization and filtering. It can be surprisingly difficult to distill simplicity out of the information slag most of us have to wallow in and manage. Matthew Broderick doesn’t really save the world from imminent destruction by playing tic-tac-toe with an ornery computer, and Chloe from “24” doesn’t really hack into DoD databases on her lunch break to reposition satellites and “patch the information through” to Jack Bauer’s PDA. (What kind of PDA is that, anyway?) Getting a computer to perform any task well can be a grueling challenge. It’s a lot harder than uttering overused admonitions like “keep it simple.”

Of course, while we are struggling to design easy and effective computer solutions, we often have well-wishing friends and colleagues offer helpful suggestions that begin with “Can’t you just…?” Occasionally these lead us to a Eureka moment in which the fog slips away, and we suddenly attain clarity. Typically, however, despite the speaker’s good intentions, these “can’t you just…” suggestions will never get us where we’re trying to go. Good solutions to difficult problems, especially new solutions, can be painfully, maddeningly elusive. The general public seems to operate under a widespread illusion that anyone who can successfully plug in and turn on a computer is just a hop, skip and a jump away from being the next Matthew Broderick or Chloe from “24.” You and I know it’s not so simple. It’s complicated to make things easy.

I’m saying all this because for the past several days I have been working on making it easier for you to vote for links at dzone.com. Actually it hasn’t been just the past several days. If I’m being plainly honest I have to admit it has taken much longer than that. It has probably been more like several weeks since I began sketching out new possibilities, but I think I have finally reached a point where it is tolerable, if not easy. The new DZone voting widget should be online by the time next week’s newsletter reaches you. I hope you’ll like it. Participation is the lifeblood of DZone’s “social filtering,” so we’d like to make it really, really easy for you to participate.