When it comes to designing for children’s website, you need to follow totally different approach than that for grown-ups. It is really tricky to impress this little audience as they are very impatient and enthusiastic. Kids will only revisit your site, if their experience is a cheerful one. Your design concept should be totally constructive, enjoyable and educative. In this day and age, smart phones and tablets are on the top of children’s wish-list, thus you have to confront this growing demand. As they are juvenile, they will vastly get attracted with visual effects but you have to pay heed to the functionality part too, as you have to make it simpler for the kids to operate. If the website just looks amusing but hard to operate then certainly the kids would never turn back to your site again. It is difficult to amaze this set of audience but not impossible. If you strike the right chord then it will surely be entertaining, playful and profitable to design children’s website. Usually designing websites for kids up to 7 years of age is challenging as there is lot of age difference between them and adult users and also is the difference in the user-experience (UX).
Let’s see how you can design user-centric website for kids:
Start thinking like a kid:
You must have seen many kids playing games on mobile phones or computers. If a particular game takes time to load or if the graphics do not work properly even after tapping the screen or pressing the button several times, they lose their patience without feeling contrite they may damage the device. To avoid such accidents you have to start thinking like a kid, how will they react, what would they love, etc. Unlike the grownups, children love loud sounds and solid animation effects. Hence you can integrate the sound and graphical effects to make the website or app highly interactive and engaging. This will make them understand that action is taking place. Even if the loading takes time, make the loading feature attractive with smart animation or graphics
Create a happy mood:
Sadness is attraction only with youngsters, kids love to be happy 24/7, hence if your website uses dull and boring colors or features, it will be rejected by the kids. Children don’t get mood swings as often as adults, if they see something bright and joyful, they automatically get cheered up. You can integrate some central character with happy face and positive body language which will enhance a cheery feeling in them. Use bright and eye-popping colors to keep them engaged for long time. Colors create a huge impression on children; it can either make or break your website. Create a welcoming website; you can even incorporate speaking characters to catch instant attention of the kids and to make the website more interactive. Even try to focus on the learning part. If your website is playful as well as educative, then even parents would encourage their children to explore the website.
Effortless navigation:
Navigation is quite challenging, in case of children’s website. Kids are not well-versed with technology; hence they tend to experiment with each and every feature present on the web page. Kids up to 7 years of age are not good with spellings, so rather than putting text you can use icons or images of any cartoon character that interprets the gesture for navigation. You can also go with animation effects. You not only need to simplify but oversimplify the navigation feature for kids. You can also add cheerful noise to the navigation menu and make it easier to understand.
Children are innocently honest, thus they can best judge your skills. After working on kid’s website, any designer will only have to say that it was challenging but at the same time it was one of the most fun-filled and exciting projects. You will feel as if you are reliving your childhood.
