Good Design

I bought a new lamp yesterday. It's so nice to get something that gives the impression of being properly designed for once!

• The base is made of heavy stuff (metal) whereas the stem and top bit are made of much lighter material (plastic) so that even though it can stretch a long way, it won't topple over because the centre of mass is still in the base
• The screws at each joint have things attached making it easy to loosen or tighten the joint
• Easy to use switch
• Thermoset plastic bulb surround - shiny on the inside to focus the light and not heat up as much, black on the outside to lose any heat quicky
• Little shade bits at the side of the (rotateable) bulb surround so that it's easy for it to point at work without being able to see the bulb
• Designed for compact fluorescent bulbs rather than the horribly inefficient ones

One of the less happy things was that it was the only desk lamp design in the shop to be designed for energy efficient bulbs - some of the others wouldn't even fit them in...