Designing sites for kids isn't child's play -- it takes a careful balance of usability, creative intuition and regulatory compliance.

They represent an internet population that's expected to balloon to nearly 38 million in 2008. Yet in many ways, they're the hardest online audience to reach. They're kids, and they're at the heart of a riddle that's been troubling online marketers for years: How can we effectively engage them on the web?

The emergence of new internet technologies and trends has provided us with some good options for increasing children's awareness of our products and brands. Marketers have been developing all manner of virtual worlds, online communities, social networks and online gaming destinations in an effort to attract and retain the attention of kids aged 3 through 17. The movement toward creating kid-friendly virtual worlds in particular has been likened to an online gold rush, as businesses recognize the potential of these sites to draw millions of dedicated young users each month. 

This potential only promises to increase. Online research firm eMarketer reported last year that 24 percent of the 34.3 million child and teen web users in the U.S. visited virtual worlds once a month with that number expected to rise to 34 percent in 2008 and over 50 percent within the next three years. Meanwhile, Mediamark Research and Intelligence recently found  that nearly 80 percent of kids aged 6 to 11 routinely play online games, with boys and girls spending almost an equal amount of time on the popular online activity.

Knowing young consumers are eager to experiment with these media doesn't make our task much easier. Marketing to kids has become a competitive business; we certainly benefit from understanding where their interests lie, but simply incorporating social community or gaming components into our sites (or those of our clients) doesn't guarantee their success. Designing sites for kids requires a unique strategy that takes usability, best practices and child marketing regulations into account.

Sounds like fun
The process of designing a site for kids begins as any web project does: by analyzing the needs of its target audience. If that audience is particularly young -- aged 3 to 7 -- sound will be an essential element of your site. Although kids this age are likely to go online with their parents, it's important to make sites as accessible to them as possible. Since they aren't likely to be reading well yet, that means using sound and voice-overs to narrate text intros, site options, even registration information if users are required to become members in order to use the site.

Children's attention can be further captured by the use of video, and in cases where sound is a must, offering an accompanying narrative video makes good sense. Many kids' sites incorporate a narrated video demo into their home page to walk new users through site features and familiarize them (and their cautious parents) with the site. 

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