How personal can a website be? 

ACC required a way to meet the growing injury prevention needs of recreational sports players. To address this ACC came to DNA to develop a series of websites to encourage New Zealander's to take practical actions to reduce the risk of injury while participating in sport or physical activity. Our solution was a comprehensive online application which not only created a customised training plan specific to a users sport through medical, fitness, personal and sport specific tailoring but a customised nutrition plan to match users' sex, weight and plans activity level. The free sites have already attracted over 13,000 registered users.

The challenge

ACC required a way to meet the growing injury prevention needs of recreational sports players. To address this ACC came to DNA to develop a series of websites to encourage New Zealander's to take practical actions to reduce the risk of injury while participating in sport or physical activity. Educating people how to participate like a personal trainer would do rather than simply encouraging them to participate.

The solution

It has been recognised that more people are participating in one-off sports events, such as a triathlons or fun runs. These typically encourage people to take part but without the organisers (in most cases) determining whether they are sufficiently able to participate. ACC also deal with a huge number of sport and recreational injuries every year, the cost of these injuries in 2005 alone was $241,552,674.91.

Through audience research and extensive work shopping with ACC staff and the public, DNA devised a solution - SportSmart websites. A comprehensive online application which not only creates a customised training plan specific to a users sport through medical, fitness, personal and sport specific tailoring but a customised nutrition plan to match your sex, weight and plans activity level. The family of sites to date includes NetballSmart, SnowSmart, SoccerSmart and ActiveSmart (covering running, walking and cycling) with the plan to add more in the near future.

The early results

The challenges faced were not only getting people to use this tool, but to trust it, find it compelling, encourage revisits and align the experience with visiting a personal trainer offline. Thus creating a simple and more enjoyable process through using the online medium. DNA rose to this challenge by not only creating a tool with the functionality that visitors required but one that allowed them to experience it in a hassle free and compelling fashion.

www.activesmart.co.nz

www.netballsmart.co.nz

www.soccersmart.co.nz

www.snowsmart.co.nz

Back to DNA - Auckland