To help generate some ideas of ways I could teach children in an interactive way about the SDG’s, I started looking at existing children's games and materials.
I started off looking a children's websites to get inspiration of the types of colours used as well as the language that is used. I started off looking at the CBBC website and BBC bitesize due to knowing that the BBC has a really good online presence and produces websites that are accessible and really intuitive. Both websites are really interactive and provide feedback which helps children navigate the websites. I especially like how on the CBBC website when you hover on links, it makes it look like you have pressed a button to open another page. Other buttons when you hover either change colour or the text becomes underlined which also helps you navigate so much easier. Little details like this are so playful but also help enhance a child's experience by helping them understand what the buttons do.
The CBBC website also demonstrates so well how a minimal but colourful colour palette can be used to make the website more engaging for children but not take away for the UX design as it is not overpowering and the colours are used to help users navigate and improve their overall experience instead of take away from it due to being too overpowering.
I decided to look at the National Geographic kids website as it is a really good example of how they break down more difficult or serious information and make it easier for kids to understand and enjoy learning about. I started by looking at an interactive timeline of “Nat Geo Kids’ Journey to Sustainability”. This timeline uses a fun interactive timeline that includes images, colour changing backgrounds when you travel throughout the years and a navigation guide to make it clear to children what they are looking at. They definitely use a range of colours throughout however it isn’t so overpowering that it takes away from the information being given. The language used is also really straightforward and avoids using big words that the target audience may not understand. The whole website is overall very interactive and allows children to explore different topics such as animals, science, history and geography through a bunch of games and articles.
https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/
The final website I took a look at was Cool Math 4 Kids as it demonstrates well how to keep children entertained while teaching them educational things or reinforcing topics that they have learned in school.
The website doesn’t just supply games to help children but also supplied lessons and quizzes which helps them learn subtraction, addition, division and multiplication as well as recommending games for your skill level.
The first game I looked at was “Grand Prix Multiplication”, it was a racing game against the computer which asks the child multiplication questions, if they get the answer right, they get a boost and if they get an answer wrong, the computer gets a boost. This encourages kids to not only know their multiplication sums quick so they can beat the opponents but also try and get their best time to complete the circuit. Children strive on competition so a little bit of light-hearted competition is always a good way to get them engaged and also to learn.
I then took a look at “Puppy Pull” a fun game which introduces fraction to decimal conversion. When a child gets a question right, the rope moves towards their puppy, the more they get right the faster they will win. Like I said before children love competition and improving their best scores so this game is engaging and could become a little addictive
