I worked through the Simplified/Traditional problem in the following manner when I built my Hanzi memorization flashcard deck:
I joined a few CJK decomposition databases, and then I told the computer to prioritize the deck in terms of frequency and requisite components for characters of that frequency. That means, before learning the most frequent character (的), the program forces me to learn 口,囗,日,白,勹, and 勺 first. It does so for every character in the UTF-8 encoding. 囗, strictly speaking, only fits because it's decomposed as a mod on 口.
Some character decompositions, like that for 來, rely on decompositions for which the simplified 从, not the traditional 從, is listed as a component; but that's fine, because the program fronts characters like 彳, which becomes important for spelling words like 行, and similarly 凵 comes before 山, before 出, etc.
I could get a feel of how complex characters are "spelled" with simpler characters. Even if it's not etymologically sound, it's definitely helpful. I gained a lot of understanding about characters with this kind of side-practice. However, I needed a supplementary vocabulary list to give those characters their respective meanings. (凵, for instance, means nothing to me, even though I know its pronunciation [kan3]).
Here's a good one: 土圭寸封白巾帛幫.
But I tried to make Chinese character memorization similar to English spelling memorization, by giving a few steadfast rules for character recognition, and then outlining the interconnections between simpler and more complex characters. It is definitely helpful when I need to remember how to write more complex characters, like 臟 (as 月, 艹, 爿, 戈, 臣).
This method isn't foolproof. Some simplifications were just ill-conceived. 發 and 髮 as 发? Who was the genius who thought that up?