I think it's all about cutting out jargon, and limiting vocabulary to the the most common denominator.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s we had "X for Dummies" books.

Or, perhaps you need the Cliff-notes version.

Or, can you explain it in "Basic English"[1], i.e. for a non-native speaker

  [1] http://www.basic-english.org/