The advantages of interactive play zones for children
Nowadays, children’s area is a standard for furnishing commercial and service spaces – from shopping malls and shops, through hotels and restaurants, to bank branches, medical centres and car dealerships. An attractive zone following the idea of “edutainment” increases customer satisfaction, shapes the brand’s identity and stimulates sales.
It may seem that children’s play zones are a minor addition, which a shopping mall, shop or restaurant can do without. However, research shows that it is the children and their experience that often turn out to be crucial when choosing a place to shop. The “Kids’ Power 2016” report published by the IQS research company indicates that children have an increasing impact on parents’ consumer decisions. Nearly 50% of mothers admit that their children directly advise them on choosing brands and products. In over 30% cases, it is up to children to choose the restaurant where the family should eat dinner. A family-friendly atmosphere and an offer dedicated to children is therefore not an addition, but a necessity.
New edition of fun
The current characteristics of the retail industry force managers to strive for good experiences of children and their parents. It has brought many changes in the arrangement of the so-called play areas for children. Until recently, the dominant belief was that in a cramped and incommodious space that is difficult to use for commercial purposes, it is enough to put a plastic table, chairs, several markers and coloring books.
– Traditional children’s corners have depleted the potential to influence children’s imagination. Modern children are a generation of digital natives that treats the touch screen as something natural. We will not run away from electronics, but we can make it support the development of children, and not be a tool of pointless entertainment. ZooZone, with Samsung screens, understands this idea perfectly – says Mikołaj Bobiński, Sales Director IT Division Samsung Electronics.
The advantage of digital solutions
To meet the market expectations and actually create attractive places for children and their parents, you need new thinking about spaces for the youngest. Children’s zones should be located in “first category” places – i.e. spacious, safe and lit. Every square meter of a shopping mall, a store or a restaurant must generate profit. That is why it is equally important that the play area provides children with a multitude of experiences and maximum satisfaction using the smallest possible space. This kind of efficiency can only be provided by digital solutions that offer diverse games – such as arcade, logic and language games – on one display. That allows for systematic updating of their content. Children are not forced to play with one manual toy, which quickly becomes boring, but they can choose from games suited to their age and interests. Also, they can discover a new application with each subsequent visit.
The implementation in a KFC restaurant
One of the first children’s play zones called ZooZone was implemented according to the new concept in the KFC restaurant in Cracow. The compact product containing touch screens, closed in a shape of a giraffe and an elephant, perfectly fits into the space reserved for children. The warm colour of the plywood makes the place cozy and intimate, and the symbolic shapes of animals arouse children’s curiosity from afar. Educational games that have been designed with the utmost care cannot be overestimated either.
KFC restaurants were looking for a product for children that would be attractive, modern and reliable. ZooZone met these expectations, and most importantly, expanded its offer with the function of ecology education. Children learn how to segregate waste using multimedia games. This is a great advantage of this product. After a few months of its installation, restaurant staff confirms that children are much more likely to use games on touch screens than manual toys placed next to them. Meanwhile, this is just the beginning – in the Applink’s future there is also the implementation of motion sensors for new educational games and interesting competitions for children.
ZooZone in a branch of Bank Pekao S.A.
A bank branch is a place where customers need special attention to carefully consider the offer and make right financial decisions. A safe play zone for children, where parents can leave them children for a while while talking to the bank staff themselves, turns out to be a useful and functional solution. The thing is that hardly any product meets the expectations of modern bank branches in terms of aesthetics, and moreover – hardly any digital product meets the strict standards of data transmission set by banking security systems. – We have met both challenges presented to us by the banking sector. We have prepared an individual design for Bank Pekao with the shape referring to the pictogram in the logo of our client. We have also strengthened our software firewall, thanks to which we successfully passed IT security tests – says Grzegorz Kaszyński, President of the Board at Applink.
Two objects, a free-standing tree with a touch screen and a manual game, as well as an original bison with a set of educational applications, have entered the interiors of Bank Pekao branches in Warsaw for good. The installation of the ZooZone children’s play zone has introduced a completely new quality to the bank’s branch. Educational games attract the attention of the youngest, and thanks to that, parents can talk freely to advisors. The form and shape of the product, as well as the reliability of applications that give children so much experience within the parents’ sight, have turned out to be a hit. Soon ZooZone will appear in facilities belonging to completely different industries.
Copyright © by Applink Sp. z o. o. 2020 | Publication: March 25, 2020
