Mina - the Smart Mirror

Mina

Mina is a smart mirror that gives daily short assignments in the context of self-confidence. It is a mirror that you use in your own safe environment and that helps you to become convinced of your own potential and qualities. Mina was initially designed for unemployed people over 50: people with a wealth of experience, talent and potential, who just couldn’t find a job. In recent years, partly due to Covid, it has become clear that it is not only the over-50s who are struggling with this. This lack of self-insight and self-confidence is also common among young people. The lack of self-confidence in our society is something that causes problems in several places. Mina can offer a solution to this problem! During our preliminary research, we closely involved the target group in the design process. They carried out various assignments and gave us weekly feedback. After a week of talking to their mirror, almost all participants noticed that they were more positive about themselves compared to the beginning of the tes,t with the exception of one person, who was already positive and remained so.

How it works

Mina’s daily short assignments stimulate the growth of self-confidence so that this valuable group of people become aware of their own potential and qualities. As you do these exercises undisturbed in your own bubble, and therefore alone, you can talk freely without having to take into account what others think of you. It starts in an accessible way so there is room to get used to this possibly uncomfortable situation. The longer Mina is used, the more challenging it will become. At the moment Mina is in the research and development phase. We want to get more attention for the project as a potential solution, create more awareness about the scope of the above social problem, and we want to recruit new partners and customers. This will ensure that Mina can be launched more quickly.

The future of Mina

Currently, Mina is a toolbox consisting of a 21-day journey combined with a (non-interactive) mirror. In addition, Mina is in development to become "smart." This means that we are in the process of making Mina interactive and thus working with smart technology. Smart Mina analyzes the user while performing the exercises and provides customized feedback and compliments accordingly. All this is done in an auditory way. The user only has to turn on Mina and she does the rest. Here, we think it is important to take into account issues of privacy and security. Mina has so far won the Hanneke Schreurs graduation prize from the Municipality of Utrecht, has been presented at the WHO European Healthy Cities Network Congress(2020) and at Interaction Redux 20 Netherlands. Mina is also part of Driving Dutch Design 2022. In addition, Nadine van den Berg, founder of Mina, is also a driver of Driving Dutch Design 2022. This is a program set up by ABN Amro, the BNO, the Dutch Design Foundation and Stichting Stokroos