The phrase "a less than straightforward" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a situation, process, or concept that is complicated or not easy to understand.
Example: "The instructions for assembling the furniture were a less than straightforward set of guidelines, leaving many customers confused."
Alternatives: "somewhat complicated" or "not entirely clear".
The defeat, Roberto Di Matteo's first in the Champions League, means English teams have now failed to win in Donetsk in four attempts and leaves Chelsea with a less than straightforward path to the last 16.
In practice, attributing autonomy or free will to humans on the basis of the fulfillment of a set of conditions turns out to be a less than straightforward endeavor.
George Ford, having already put a penalty well wide, was off target with a less than straightforward conversion, but finally found his range in front of the posts after a Brive misdemeanour.
I cannot argue that it is a less than straightforward endeavor to try and understand the black male psyche.
Though in a different register, politicians have employed less-than-straightforward language since the dawn of recorded time.
He is nervous in the face of mounting evidence of less-than-straightforward goings on between Unite, the local party and voters in the selection of a candidate for the Falkirk by-election, but he must know that until this mess is finally cleared the progress he's made on energy prices and the cost of living is at risk.
That less-than-straightforward gestation seems hard to believe nowadays, when Brahms's Fourth Symphony is trotted out on concert programmes as a sure-fire way to put bums on seats, with its comfortingly familiar melodies and melancholy, its promise of satisfying symphonic coherence, and its apparently easy appeal to musicians, conductors and audiences.
While many exhibitions are often mysterious or less-than-straightforward for the sake of being so, the enigmas within Tarantallegra are thematically bolstering, rather than a self-important exercise of obfuscation.
Turning basic logic into an extensional system proved less than straightforward.
