Link is a fitness application with collaborative training missions for cities to join Team Novo Nordisk and win the race against urban diabetes.

The Context
Team Novo Nordisk — an international, all diabetes sports team of professional cyclists and elite triathletes and runners — is a global inspiration for diabetics and people in general to be more active. With over 935,4600 followers on Facebook the athletes, particularly the professional cyclists, are motivating other diabetics to manage their diabetes and exercise more. This is especially critical in urban environments which are seeing a growing crisis: nearly two thirds of all people with diabetes live in cities and the prevalence of urban diabetes is only growing.

How we could expand the Team Novo Nordisk inspiration to the wider landscape of urban diabetes to encourage more active lifestyles in cities?

How It Works
Link is a series of global 'training missions' that are supported through Facebook communities and an individual fitness application for contributors. Team Novo Nordisk launch a training mission in connection with an upcoming race (ex: Tour of Hainan, 42,000km) and then publicise the new mission through Facebook and individual notifications.

Once an individual accepts the mission, their kilometers of walking, running, and cycling are tracked by a fitness app and then aggregated with other contributors towards the global mission. The app is connected to a contributor's Facebook page so updates could be automatically posted to their wall and they can get support from their social network of family and friends. As a user contributed more kilometers, they could receive unlock “pro-tips” through the application, such as advice from trainers, nutritionists, etc. on Team Novo Nordisk.

The global total of contributed kilometers is visible through the application, and other media channels, such as the Cities Changing Diabetes website. Total progress can also be tracked at a city-level to foster a sense of competition on a community level.

Once a training mission has been accomplished, a physical bike chain is made and given to Team Novo Nordisk; a symbolic visualisation of each city that contributed, each link in the training mission. Individual contributors will also receive their own link, their own piece of the effort.

Value to Novo Nordisk
Link spreads Team Novo Nordisk inspiration to the global Cities Changing Diabetes initiative and establishes Novo Nordisk as the first professional cycle team with a social fitness app. It also enables more active engagement from Team Novo Nordisk Facebook supporters and provides Novo Nordisk with detailed data fitness activity across the world.

The Process
During this two weeks project we worked for Novo Nordisk, a global pharmaceutical and the world’s leading diabetes care company. We started by interviewing diabetics and active athletes and were inspired by the role social support plays in both communities. Diabetics look to each other for knowledge sharing and inspiration and are motivated to stay healthy for their family. Athletes motivate each other to push their training goals and accomplish personal goals. From these insights, we created rough concepts and then sketched scenarios and a service map to flush out the concept of Link.