The never-ending battle against cigarettes

“I want to give up smoking!”
A phrase that many people utter year after year, some out loud, some silently to themselves. I, too, have said it countless times. And yet, every time, it was the same old story: a few days of withdrawal, a bit of pride, then a loss of motivation, frustration, and a relapse. It was enough to drive you to despair. Why can’t I just manage it?

This agonising question became the basis of my research:
Why is it so hard to give up smoking?

The answer: smoking is more than just nicotine addiction. It’s a ritual, a lifestyle, an ingrained habit, deeply rooted in body and mind. Reaching for a cigarette is subconsciously linked to certain activities, times of day and emotions: morning coffee, a break at work, the frustration after an argument. Each of these moments cries out for a cigarette, not because the body craves nicotine, but because the mind is used to it.

The concept designed to change that

This realisation gave rise to a new question:
How can an interactive IoT device help smokers stay on track during the first ten days of quitting?

And that’s how Novera came about. Novera is a stop-smoking kit that gently guides you through the toughest stage of quitting: the first 10 days of the process. It starts with you making a conscious decision to quit smoking. You register online to receive a kit and seal your commitment with a contract with yourself. A clear sign that ‘from this day onwards, I’m quitting’.

On the start date you choose yourself, your personalised Novera smoking cessation kit will be sent to your home. It contains a nicotine replacement product of your choice to help you through the physical withdrawal.

You’ll also be given a cigarette substitute that looks like a real cigarette, feels familiar, but contains no tobacco. It’s designed to help you gradually break the habit of smoking. Time and again, smokers going through the process of giving up find that they don’t know what to do with their time, perhaps because they no longer have a ‘reason’ to go out for a breath of fresh air without a cigarette, or because a coffee without a cigarette seems unpalatable. The imitation cigarette helps you maintain your routine, just without taking a drag on a cigarette. However, to ensure it doesn’t seem completely pointless, the imitation cigarette mimics the glow of the ember and the formation of ash. This way, you can still ‘flick the ash’ as usual. If you can gradually wean yourself off nicotine addiction with the help of nicotine replacement products, why not do the same with the physical habits? With the dummy, you can at least do away with lighting up, inhaling and the smell. Step by step, you’ll decouple the rituals of smoking from your everyday life.

The smart piggy bank is particularly motivating – it lights up every time you choose the dummy over a real cigarette. This allows you to see your progress automatically: how many cigarettes you’ve skipped and how much money you’ve saved in the process.

The psychological dependence is gently, almost imperceptibly, replaced by positive experiences. The progress, which is automatically visualised for you, helps you realise that you can do it. Every success is celebrated. This boosts your motivation in the long term. And so, even after the 10 days, you’ll find it easier to stay on the path to becoming a non-smoker.

After ten days, it’s time to say goodbye – officially and for good. You place the dummy in the return packaging provided (a coffin) and send it back to Novera. A conscious ritual to close the ‘cigarette’ chapter for good. And to mark the occasion, you’ll even get part of the purchase price back.

Novera helps you to wean yourself off smoking, step by step. It does so by providing motivation, boosting your self-efficacy and reducing the likelihood of relapse.

The journey is the destination

During my field research, it became clear to me that quitting isn’t about perseverance, but about one’s own mindset. Those who successfully became non-smokers didn’t simply have ‘more willpower’. They had developed a new attitude towards smoking. They didn’t see quitting as a matter of persevering or enduring. They didn’t ‘give up smoking’. They wanted to become non-smokers. Not to give something up, but to gain something. Novera aims to promote precisely this shift – through gentle restructuring rather than radical measures, through experience rather than endurance.

Because giving up smoking is not a punishment. It is the start of a journey where you can only win.