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The Slow Drift of Website Complexity

Posted on Accessibility | Sustainable Web | UX Design

Henry BramwellHenry Bramwell

This infographic makes a simple but important point: websites don’t fail all at once, they slowly drift into complexity. Over time, disconnected decisions, unchecked plugins, scripts, and media pile up, creating risk that goes far beyond performance, affecting usability, accessibility, reputation, and cost. The solution isn’t another tool or redesign, it’s disciplined governance. Treating the website as a long-lived system, with clear ownership, intentional boundaries, and restraint, leads to simpler, healthier platforms that perform better, are easier to use, more accessible, and far easier to maintain over the long run.

Infographic depicting the slow drift of complexity vs. disciplined governance.