Redesigning Safety Helmet for Indian Construction Workers: User-Centered Design Approach

Safety helmets are designed to protect the worker’s head from injuries in the workplace. Most Indian construction workers are not ready to wear safety helmets in the workplace because of the helmets’ discomfort. Major wearability issues in safety helmets that require redesigns were fitness and hotness. In this paper, the redesign for a helmet was proposed to improve the motivation among construction workers to wear by addressing hotness and vision issues. Observations and surveys were conducted at two similar construction projects in northeast India to identify the issues with the existing helmets used at sites. Also, the user’s requirements were gathered through informal discussions to address the issues faced by the workers. Based on the user requirements, the two significant objectives were set to (1) reduce the helmets’ peak size to enhance the user’s visibility and (2) provide space for air circulation to reduce sweat among users. The concepts were generated, and once again, the research team had discussions with users to select the final concept of the helmet. The final concept was selected based on their recommendations, and a mockup was developed. The next step of the design process will be developing a prototype of the helmet and allowing them for testing and assessment to verify that the design is a workable improvement. It is anticipated that the safety performance of the construction industry could be enhanced if employers support the workers wearing redesigned safety helmets.