This paper analyses the role of Design in the development of smart and interactive products for the consumer market, a context in which technology is the leading component. The outcomes are often tech gadgets lacking meaningful value for users and thanks to the democratization of production methods and crowdfunding platforms their diffusion is exponential. By presenting the case study of Thingk-a company derived from a crowdfunded project-this paper highlights how the user feedback gathered during crowdfunding impacted the design process and the evolution of the final product.

Magika is an interactive Multisensory Environment that enables new forms of playful interventions for children, especially those with Special Education Needs. Designed in cooperation with more than 30 specialists at local care centers and primary schools, Magika integrates digital worlds projected on the wall and the floor with a gamut of "smart" physical objects (toys, ambient lights, materials, and various connected appliances) to enable tactile, auditory, visual, and olfactory stimuli. The room is connected with an interface for educators that enables them to: control the level of stimuli and their progression; define and share a countless number of game-based learning activities; customize such activities to the evolving needs of each child. This paper describes Magika and discusses its potential benefits for play, education and inclusion. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Interactive learning environments; • Human-centered computing → Displays and imagers; Accessibility systems and tools; • Social and professional topics → People with disabilities; Children; • Hardware → Tactile and hand-based interfaces; • Computer systems organization → Sensors and actuators.

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This paper aims at showing how design can become a strategic lever to help a productive context grow (SMEs, practitioners, corporate policy, and research system). In particular, it focuses on the ability of design to enable social and economic connections among the actors involved in a project, to find new ways for developing innovation within SMEs, and to make young designers face the entrepreneurial reality.The projects developed at the INDACO department of Politecnico di Milano show how creativity can add value to the professional relationship between young designers and micro, small and medium companies. These projects use action-research as methodology and aim at promoting design culture in the Italian local productive realities. Specifically, the case studies presented in this paper use mechanisms of design knowledge and technology transfer [19], that is the physical transfer of innovation agents (newly graduate designers) into companies. With the researchers' support, these mechanisms have led to develop product, service and communication projects in collaboration with SMEs. The approach followed is based on the concept of "human capital growth" [16] that adds expertise to the company aiming at action-taking.Moreover the pilot-cases were developed through a practical process of learning by doing and learning by interacting, with a double benefit for participants: companies previously unfamiliar with design had the chance to experience the potentials of design, and young designers experienced real working situations, applying their technical knowledge on product development and production processes [4].The paper focuses mainly on the latest of these pilot cases, that is the project DEA -Design E Artigianato per il Trentino, looking at the collaborative experiences developed with small manufacturing companies in the province of Trento. It also tries to sum up ten years of research and experimentation on the topic. The aim of the paper is to try and consolidate a model of knowledge exchange [15] for developing innovative projects with the aid of design, supported by both University and Entrepreneurial Associations as trust generators [10,13].

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