According to Paul Goldberger in his article "The Heatherwick Effect," the magic of Thomas Heatherwick's design is "his drive to to make his work comprehensible to people who don't know the first thing about design."

Heatherwick's designs are "empathetic," imaginative, or avant-garde structures that can be used intuitively, like a hospital complex that leads a sick and elderly person directly to the front door or a creative sculpture that makes people want to see what's on the second floor of a shop. In his article, Goldberger uses definition to verbally describe these complicated structures without compromising how easy they are to use or understand.

In the first paragraph of the article, Goldberger describes the Rolling Bridge as someone walking down the street would see it. First, there is a simple definition of a bridge and a description of the materials it is made of ("steel and wood") and how it exists in space ("crossing the water in eight short sections"). Next comes the second impression, an imaginative description of the bridge in use:

When a boat needs to pass, it arcs up and back from one side like a scorpion's tail, and folds itself into a neat octagon on the opposite bank.

When looking at an object, people often see the materials and shapes it is made of before anything else. This can be a pitfall of innovative modern design, when an object that is supposed to be used is made out of something uncommon or moves in an unusual way that obscures its function. Goldberger wants to emphasize that this is not the case with Heatherwick's work, so he defines the look and construction of a design and clearly connects it to a simple description of its use or movement.

Goldberger continues to use this strategy to convey the harmony in Heatherwick's work throughout the article, defining the creative or eccentric materials and shapes of a design alongside an imaginative but perfectly clear description of its function.