#HTE

Meet Heng, A Charmingly Inverted Desk Light

At first look Heng is a simple lamp, with a funny cord in the middle. The light, designed by Zanwen Li, really is simple but also more fun than it appears. The bentwood shapes and LED band are everything you’d expect, but to turn the lamp on and off you don’t pull the cord down, you lift one half up. 

Unlike most lamps activated by pull-chain (or even button depressing) here the igniting connection is created when the lower of the two balls it lifted into the gentle magnetic pull of the other. Under tension they add a visual element to the lit lamp, and an unusually fun lo-fi interface. 

Having already snatched a Red Dot, the Heng is now on Kickstarter for the low low price of ~$44 USD. While it isn’t making any wild or high tech claims, it’s still one of the coolest updates on lighting UX we’ve seen in a while.