Nicolas Nova: The future of urban computing [5:25]
Nicolas Nova is researcher at the Media and Design Lab at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne and one of the editors of the annual LiftConference in Geneva. An expert on user experience and interface design, his research focuses on urban computing, so on how people use technology infrastructure in cities and in urban environments. He says that the future of cities it is not about technology but about human needs, an about what citizens want. In this interview he explains examples of the intelligent use of urban computing, like “Real-time Rome”, an MIT project realized in the Italian capital.

Alberto Alessi: Why real innovation is a question of systematic failure management [12:55]
The Italian design factory ALESSI is a representative example of how Italian design companies, like Artemide, Flos or Kartell, have been able to constantly reinventing themselves without loosing focus: exploring the imaginary of people by ignoring prescriptive marketing research in their product development. For this video interview we travelled to the Alessi headquarters in Crusinallo near Milan where chief design manager Alberto Alessi spoke about his theory of contemporary design management, the ugliness of cars, how Philippe Stark’s lemon squeezer came to life and why the egg is the most singular object ever “designed”.

Tom Kelley (IDEO): What has innovation consulting to do with film-making? [6:37]
Tom Kelley, general manager at IDEO and author of books like “The Art of Innovation” and “The Ten Faces of Innovation” is a globally recognised authority in innovation consulting. In this video interview he describes the fundamental changes in the innovation business, the importance of radical collaboration and design-based thinking, explains what IDEO’s innovation projects have to do with film-making and why shareholder value-obsessed CEOs won’t keep their jobs too long.

Younghee Jung (Nokia): What a Nokia product designer thinks about the iPhone? [4:47]
Nokia, the leading mobile phone producer, uses exploratory design research in an almost anthropological approach to study user behaviour in order to get fresh ideas for new products and applications. We talked to the product and interaction designer Younghee Jung, leader of one of Nokia’s global research teams, about the difficulties of exploring future trends in the mobile communication, the importance of local user behaviour and she finally confessed that the iPhone was actually, a positive thing to happen – both, for Nokia and the entire mobile phone industry.

Emile Aarts (Philips Research): Innovation by creating products that are “easy to experience” [5:14]
Emile Aarts is the vice president and director of the scientific programme at Philips Research. In 1998 he created the Ambient Intelligence Vision and in 2001 he founded the Philips HomeLab, two two initiatives that shaped the way in which the largest electronics company in Europe currently creates its new products.
“We have ensured that the separation between different departments is not as strict as before. We adopt a programmatic vision on innovation processes, which means that we have created truly multidisciplinary groups.”