Designing gear for firefighter safety
Industrial Designer, MSA Safety
Firefighters do everything they can to keep us safe. But how do they ensure their own safety on a call?
That鈥檚 a job for technology designed by Christopher Henley (CFA 2015), a principal designer with Pittsburgh-based manufacturer . He leads the user experience strategy for firefighter safety products, including gear that ranges from helmets and breathing apparatuses to search and rescue devices and their incident management ecosystem.
LUNAR is the kind of search-and-rescue tech you expect in spy movies: A wirelessly-connected thermal imager and search tool that helps locate firefighters and see through smoke. It integrates with a cloud-based accountability platform that visualizes their locations and stats as the incident they鈥檝e responded to unfolds.
Like a smoke-filled building, Chris has to understand needs for products that aren鈥檛 easy to see. For example, firefighters鈥� thick gloves affect the functionality of handheld devices. He leads rounds of user research, prototyping and experimentation to shape the product for a multitude of variables.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to understand needs and situations at a deeper, more immersive level to gain empathy with firefighters when we design their tools. That鈥檚 what shapes my design process, and ultimately the products that come from it,鈥� Chris says.
Many industrial design peers work on consumer products, designing for trend-oriented aesthetics. Chris鈥� career so far resides in the B2B space. Prior to MSA, he did a stint at Eaton working on electrical infrastructure including an industrial backup power supply for power-hungry data centers that won an International Forum Design Award in 2022.
鈥淚n fields where the stakes are high, design transitions from being a marketing tool to being a force for change, innovation and impact,鈥� he explains. 鈥淔irefighters depend on our products, so this space really offers a chance to create solutions that matter.鈥�
Story by Elizabeth Speed