Alessandro Milani Liutaio
What was the problem?
Alessandro is a violin maker based in the province of Novara, Italy. His accessories — chin rests, tailpieces, pegs — aren't interchangeable parts: a violin chin rest, for instance, has to fit the specific measurements of the player's neck and the distance from jaw to shoulder. Alessandro himself designs and builds part of his own tools, including CNC machines to prototype made-to-measure accessories.
A standard e-commerce catalogue — built for identical, replicable products — couldn't represent this kind of craftsmanship, where every piece is calibrated to the person who will use it.
How did I reason through it?
The project started with a simpler goal — a showcase site with e-commerce features — but evolved quickly. The architectural choice was Drupal 10 paired with React.js, to get both the flexible content structure of a CMS and an interactive frontend for exploring the accessories.
3D visualization options were evaluated for displaying the instruments, but the final decision was to drop them in favor of a lighter, more interactive approach, to avoid weighing down the platform without a proportional benefit for the user.
Part of the reasoning centered on traceability: together with Alessandro, a technological identification system was designed based on tags embedded in the wood of the instruments, meant to guarantee authenticity and future traceability for each piece.
What changed?
The site moved past being a simple e-commerce showcase, representing the different types of chin rests, tailpieces, pegs and instruments Alessandro offers in a way built specifically for an audience looking for made-to-measure pieces, not catalogue products.
The technological identification system embedded in the wood was designed together with the client. Two extensions remain under evaluation, not yet built: IoT integration for managing the tools in the workshop, and a mobile app for owners of the instruments.