HCI for the Made in Italy cultural design

The article, in the form of an essay, presents a reflection on the rela- tionship between HCI and Design applied to the Made in Italy contemporary productive system and represent a preliminary step in a wider research called ‘Circular and Sustainable Made in Italy - Cultural value chain. From the local traditional production districts to a new country of origin effect’ funded by the European Community and under development at the Polytechnic University of Bari (Italy) (The research is part of the program: MICS – Circular and Sustainable Made in Italy, Spoke 7 ‘New and consumer driven business models for resilient and circular Scs’ P.5 Research Project ‘Cultural value chains: From local traditional production districts to a new country of origin effect’ (Coord. Annalisa Di Roma). Project funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU – National Plan of Recovery and Resilience (PNRR) – Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.3, Call No. 341 (15th of March 2022) of the Ministry of University and Research. Protocol instance PE00000004, Decree granting of funding No. 1551 (11th of October 2022), CUP D93C22000920001.). The article is divided in three parts: in the first one it presents an analysis of the relationship between HCI and design; in the second part the reflection focuses on the Made in Italy productive system, analysing how HCI have contributed to change its paradigm; the third part comes to the design responsibility in updating its role within the scenario described in the previous parts. Lastly, in the conclusion the article tries to summarize the main methodological and operative aspects which can constitute starting points for further contributions on the subject.