The ways to make your own website for kids

When designing a website that will be used mainly by kids, the same processes should be used as in standard websites. However, special attention has to be paid to specific topics. This article will review some of them.

Keep it simple but appealing

First of all, to make your own website, you will need it to be "easy to see", with all proposed contents visible at a glance. Websites for kids should guide them to the desired contents. Information saturation may have a negative effect on a child's attention. Of course, a good designer has many tools to draw attention to: the use of colour, layout, funny icons, animated GIFs or flash inserts. It is important not to overwhelm the kids. You should make them feel comfortable, but also curious and interested.

Uniform colours, but icons and images

As a general rule, visual content should look uniform, with a studied colour palette. Here, there are two different strategies: - Leisure websites may include bright colours, flashing and blinking items, logos or images of known characters. This will depend on the target age and kids. - Educational websites may prefer softer colours and more formal layouts, to give more importance to contents. However, the website must remain appealing so that children will want to remain there (and learn while they play).

Contents linking

Of course, the most important thing will be the contents in the website. If it is planned to work as a
stand-alone site (for example, if you host your own home site with activities and family photos), no external link is required. Remember that when you design your own website, you have full control on its contents. In case that some external links will be added (games, video servers, themes, sites), you have to make sure that those are certified and problem-free. Child protection should be a major item. Special attention is needed in free hosting webs, that may include (wrong) advertisement.

Pedagogical contents

Finally (and this is just a recommendation), web browsing and gaming should be related or linked to educational topics. Children will learn from everything that they see, hear and feel. It is a good practice to compile all the desired links, documentation and objects to be included in the website prior to its programming. Also, the design of the website map will be helpful to guide the kids through the different levels of gaming, leisure and learning. In this sense, some SQL / PHP programming may be desired to track each kid's evolution. Finally, the website has to include some way to reward curiosity, so that children will want to come back to it. The website needs to provide some added value to them too.