Curiosity
Some products serve surprising functions with unexpected forms. For instance, 3M’s scotch tape looks like a doughnut but works as a tape dispenser. It can be divided into two parts and combined with differently colored parts such as chocolate-brown, strawberry-red, and cream-white. There is a cell-phone shaped lighter which lights up the fire when its slide opens. There is a wine-bottle shaped umbrella. A small umbrella can be carried by a wine-bottle shaped container.
Why do people like a product when its form has nothing to do with its function? As far as I know, most prior works on product design suggest that match is always better than mis-match between from and function. When the perceived function (inferred from a form) is inconsistent with the actual function, does it positively surprise people? Or, are people curious about the product when its function is not inferred from its from?
