The brain likes to simplify things as much as possible. A wall doesn't have to be exactly white for us to see it/call it a white wall. Angry birds feels nice because it is extremely simple for the kind of things that it wanted to represent. There was just enough detail on that bird to quickly form a well-defined, clear mental image. In fact, it is so clear we have no desire of adding anything to it. This makes us comfortable and puts our mind at ease.
Just like the no-smoking sign.
Wizard's First Rule reads nicely and comfortably because the descriptions are to-the-point and fed just at the right time - just when the reader is anticipating it. Fitting the expectations means no revision/recoding is necessary or done. The author, Terry Goodkind, is careful to present details exactly when most people will start wondering about it.
These expectations are cognitive habits hidden in plain sight. We keep using them, yet they are harder to discover because of other cognitive tendencies, like not wanting to think more than you have to, aka getting used to something.
One such tendency is for direct descriptions in simple wording. This is simply parallel with the Angry Birds form distinct impressions in minds. We want representations as clear as possible, not fuzzy, untouchable shapes.
A sense of mystery also helps engage/hypnotize the user. "Why did you do this?" The discontinuity makes one waste CPU cycles and relax, at least until the person actually thinks about it. Very common examples of this include IPad interface. It is very distinct, and one has to wonder why there are so many gaps between icons, how the icons can follow my fingers on the screen, why things expand at the rate they do. All this is far from arbitrary, yet just thinking about it is enough to make the mind try to chase its own tail - the dog never gets it.
Simplicity repeated leads to more simplicity, not less. The mind becomes more and more efficient at processing the same thing - more of it becomes unconscious. It is the progression from unconscious unknowing - not having any mental model at all, to unconscious knowing. Any discontinuity has been related to other discontinuities to form continuities. When all discontinuities have been found and connected, there are no more distinctions to snag onto consciously.
All this fit together to form user-friendly, engaging software.
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