We live in the century, where everything is online from shopping luxury items to buying daily necessities, from watching films and series to educating kids. However, it’s not easy to engage kids to a website because unlike adults, kids don’t look for too much information. In fact, they want a website that is catchy, entertaining and has fun elements likes games, colours, videos, cartoons and more. But if it’s not easy to understand, simple, takes too much time to load and tedious the kids will immediately switch to some other website. So, unleash the inner child in you before designing the website for the younger ones. Here are a few tips that can help you design a website for the kids:
1. Select the target age group
Different age groups have different choices. So it is very crucial to select your target age group for your website and design accordingly. For instance, choose bright colours, add learning games, small stories and easy words for the kids between 3-9 years of age. The children between 10-16 years of age are growing and would prefer content more teen-oriented on the website.
2. Make it colourful
The more colours, the more it will attract to the younger ones so add as many colours as you can. Play with the background and themes, add colourful pictures because it is all about catching the kids’ attention.
3. Use Canva to design the website graphics
Canva is an easy platform to design websites’ graphics hassle-free. Canva provides an effective web wireframe for a proper website and offers various tools for designing and layouts. Since it offers easy to use interface, it saves a lot of time; just drag and drop everything– pictures, audios, videos and more. Add and update features every day and share the content by just clicking on the share option.
4. Add the familiar characters
Children love cartoons since they make them happy, they are friendly, full of life and lovable. Thus, add a few characters from television, games or videos, and that will definitely help you engage the kids on your website.
5. Incorporate different elements
Use shapes, animals, flowers and all other things from nature that children can recognise. Adding different animal and flowers appeals to the younger audience and this will make your website fun, and will also reinforcement learning.
6. Use simple words
Kids will not understand the content on your website, if you will use difficult vocabulary and words. So, try to use simple words. Make sure the font size is neither too large nor too small and choose fonts that are attractive yet easily readable. Use colours for the texts that don’t dilute with the background but stand out.
7. Add storyline
Don’t make your website too dull for the kids, add some storyline–this will engage the kids and will build a connection between them and the website. Use the characters and elements that you have added to the website to build the story and connect the storyline on different pages.
8. Make it interactive
You cannot just make a kid choose a website that is full of texts. The children are looking to have fun, so make sure that your website is interactive for the kids. Add games, quizzes, puzzles, videos and more to it that keep them busy.
9. Add different sounds
Different sounds and music are always fun. Stimulate children’s senses by making them hear interactive sounds. Using familiar sounds (like of animals) is a good way of engaging kids to your website.
10. Offer choices
There are many ways through which you can offer choices to the young visitors of your website with a thoughtful design. Options like polls, customisation of avatars and more can make your website more flexible and will also help in engaging the visitors.
11. Navigation and icons should be kids friendly
Since any website for kids needs to user-friendly, so make sure that all the icons are very well displayed. Use proper animation or designs to represent each of the navigation options to make it obvious.
12. The website must be able to foster education
A website is a great opportunity for young minds to learn while having fun. Incorporate games, puzzles and activities that make the visitors learn something. Add badges and rewards for the correct answers to encourage them to learn more.