Designing for the "tweens"
What does a 7-year-old child have in common with a 15 year
old?
Interesting question and depending on whom you ask, the answer
will always be different. Ask the 7 year old and they will
invariably say that all manner of things are common, like music,
fashion, food, TV, media, music heroes and sport. Ask the 15 year
old and the answer is bound to be ‘nothing’. Ask a 15
year old to take their 7 year old brother or sister to a play-park
and the reaction will be ‘yuk - no way’. Ask the 7 year
old and the 15 year old individually to play on the same piece of
play equipment and you may be pleasantly surprised!
SMP Playgrounds designs a range of outdoor play equipment separated
into 3 age-related sectors: Early Years, Junior Play and Senior
Equipment. However, SMP has developed a new product that actually
cuts across the age boundaries between juniors and seniors,
appealing to the 7 to 15 year old age group. Whilst the 7 to 15
year age group is very broad, in the hands of SMP it eclipses into
a new genre, where cool becomes the by-word and the ages meld into
one. Children in this 7 to 15 years age range demand challenges,
excitement, stimulation and most of all differentiation from the
smaller children. Understanding these developmental characteristics
and play needs, however broad and demanding, has enabled SMP to
design and build a range of kit that 7 year olds and 15 year olds
flock to.
Nexus range takes on board cultrual influences as well as style and
functionality
Children are usually divided up into age groups both by adults
and by each other; however, this needs to be seen from a slightly
different angle, one that measures the level of supervision.
What you might call a classic public playground facility is where
younger children will be taken by their parents, grandparents and
supervisors. This is an area that SMP identified as being well
catered for. The key observation here is that the adult supervisor
is the main influence to children visiting these types of
facilities.
As the age bracket for play equipment moves upwards, a new style
of playground appears that appeals to the older children and the
‘tweens’. This is where a new generation of product
lines such as SMP’s Nexus range sits comfortably. Although,
still mainly based on ‘play’ activities, Nexus focuses
on such experiences as climbing and exploring and excitement
through movement and challenge. An older child may well be the
demanding force in visiting this play space as it’s fun,
cool, and more exciting than others around. However, there will
probably remain a level of hands-off supervision by adults
nearby.
Child development and learning research is commonly used by the
most reputable play equipment manufacturers to set the parameters
for skill types and the challenges or activities that the equipment
can provide. This type of research can also suggest ways in which
children of a certain age or development stage might react to
shape, colour, or texture.
However, SMP takes this a step further as there are many other
factors that will affect how children interact with their play
environment and how they act within play or sports spaces. One key
current social trends is ‘KGOY’ – Kids Getting
Older Younger, also known as ‘age compression’. This is
now a well-documented social trend and is partly responsible for
creating what the toy industry terms ‘tweens’. These
are children who fall into the 8-12 years age bracket and are
marketed to as a specific consumer group. Now the 8 year olds of
days gone by are the new 13 year olds, with the 13 year olds
becoming the new 16 year olds. The kids of this age group are
forming close-knit social groups, which operate within a mature and
complex social hierarchy. They all desire a place of their own to
play, and this must satisfy their need to belong.
The youth culture that these kids are a part of has made them
incredibly brand aware, much less interested in traditional toys
and pastimes and far more switched on by technology. Technology now
forms a major part of children’s entertainment, social
interaction, information gathering and brand awareness. This is
something that is only going to increase and SMP believe that for
any product to be successful there must be a link to these cultural
desires and many other strong influences such as fashion, music,
sports, magazines, the Internet and computer games. Changes in
trends, fashions and technology happen at an ever-quickening pace
which means that ‘tweens’ demand change in their
social and play environments to meet the expectations set by these
influences.
In September 2004 SMP launched the Nexus range, breaking into a
market that was only just being considered by the play industry.
The ground-breaking designs of the first Nexus models were
perceived as truly innovative and exciting, leapfrogging anything
else that the market had to offer, with the focus being on
exploration rather than dictating play functions. This was built
upon as SMP expanded the range throughout 2005-6. The key to the
success of Nexus was in understanding what it was that kids in this
target age bracket considered cool, what they spent their time
doing and researching into the influences that come from all around
them.
A strong current trend bought-into by millions of
‘tween’ age and teenage kids is adrenalin sports,
especially snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing. Here one
can see the strong presence of big brand names and all the obvious
links with showing off and being cool. From these key influences,
SMP developed and launched the latest addition to the Nexus range
in September 2006. This was Freeride, a perfect example of a new
product that has taken on board all of these important factors to
offer both the style, functionality and the aspirations that will
easily resonate with ‘tweens’ at an age where being
cool and showing off is all important. This has moved the idea of
‘playing’ well away from young children’s play
areas and into an arena where tween kids will actively seek out and
visit park facilities they can call their own, getting them
outside, socialising with their peers and being active while away
from the TV. Parks must have this ‘unsupervised’ appeal
to succeed in attracting our young adults to them.
Bridging the age groups between a traditional industry divide of
Juniors (typically 6-10 year olds) and Seniors (usually considered
to be 10 years+) was a strategic key objective for the Nexus range.
The success is easy to see when kids are observed playing on Nexus.
The older children are naturally attracted by the dynamic look and
the fact that is it clearly not something for the ‘little
kids’, with a challenging mix of activities as well as a cool
place to hang about. The slightly younger ones naturally aspire to
join in with this and although some functions may well be difficult
to master at first, this does keep them coming back time after time
until they can achieve their goal.
To learn more about SMP visit www.smp.co.uk