Your singing my tune momentary , those simple rules can't be ignored no matter how much you would like to. Remember more than three clicks and there gone!

It is interesting that there are still people out there that try to design and develop using the old kitchen sink methodology of throw it all into a web app and assume users will love it.

Note that a certain big pillar bank added the usual ajax and flex wizardry to their online banking platform only to have users go 'um its nice but doesn't really help me in doing anything quickly and easily' and have the bank remove all the functionality.

It still rings true that sure, you can utilise technology to assist UX such as ajax etc. to assist/enhance validation and many other toys such as drag and drop UI but if it distracts the user or if the user can't 'get' your app or website IA/design....users will bail.

To the dissapointment of most web designers and developments, simple, intuitive and predictable UI wins everytime...why?.. web users have nooooo patience.

Some good points OJ,
1) I agree with your first point , especially in big companies and government agencies . Job security by obscurity is in the most part a survival mechanism that allows those types of persons to create a web of dependence ensures their role. The negative impact however is obvious,poor and complicated solutions wound around the web of dependence.
2) This can be very true and I have experienced this myself , however if you have a BA worth their salt this should be controlled and resolved.( who says BA's aren't useful?)
3) This is where I think you hit the nail on the head , I have often seen the curtailing of the analysis phase in favour of time to market . To borrow from an old carpenters saying -: Check twice cut once , this works for solution building in our world as well.
4) In our business the mark of good technologists is to admit when you need help and send out the flare for help before you end up in the water.

I agree and disagree with your last comment. It may not change anytime soon , but for those of us who do give a shit there is a duty of care to encourage and to educate others to.

Very clever comment Tracy!I think therein lies the devil in the detail of design.

Didn't anyone ever tell you "life wasn't meant to be easy?" I think!.. like technology they meant simple!

Why is it complicated? The answer to that is complicated :)

In my experience I've found that the main reasons are:
1) Job security through obscurity.
2) Devs and designers feeling that they're demonstrating superior knowledge by making things more complicated than they need to be.
3) People failing to fully understand the problem well enough before building the solution, hence resulting in things that ultimately end up working but are more convoluted than they need to be due to a munged design.
4) People thinking they're better than they are and taking on something which is out of their depth resulting in a dogs breakfast and a half-baked implementation.

I agree with you. As technologists we should be making this stuff _more_ accessible, not less. Yet, despite the advances in technologies (both hardware and software), langauges, design and user experience we're still making the same stupid mistakes that we were making decades ago.

Unfortunately for those of us who give a shit, this isn't going to change any time soon.