Indoor Playgrounds
What Works
By SmartPlaygrounds
Page 1, 2
The demand for indoor play centers, whether
in the form of full Family Entertainment Centers, or specialized Childrens
Entertainment or Edu-tainment Centers continues to rise. With a tense
global situation, and growing parental need to provide children
with safe, quality play time and experiences, the interest in Indoor Playgrounds and indoor play-centers continues to expand. However, in many cases as much
as we love soft indoor playgrounds - it can be an operators challenge
to ensure a solid return on that activity investment.
When starting or operating a family fun center or childrens
entertainment center, soft contained indoor playgrounds have become
a commodity - if you are offering birthday parties and catering to children
12 years and under they have become a standard component of the overall
activity mix, and one that most guests expect to see and play in.
Indoor Play Design Principles
Soft Contained Indoor Playgrounds are about good
design from within a framework of fundamental design principles.
Creating something that not only looks good, (whether that comes
with or without a theme),
but more importantly a play-structure that is comfortable and safe and
ultimately FUN for your guests will determine your return over the long
run. As you may have witnessed, Indoor Contained Playgrounds are not
cheap, and the challenge for new playground buyers is understanding the
critical importance of thoughtful design and how to sell that
design to your customers for maximum entertainment value and ultimately
profitable operations.
For young
children with an expanding sense of social interaction, growing up and exploring the environment within a busy contained play structure can
be a menacing place. If a small 6 year
old runs into an over-sized 8 year old bully inside a lengthy tube crawl
or a one-way grid it can be a anxious experience that your fun center
need not provide. Understanding and incorporating solid design principles
can help;
 - Emergency Access and Egress
- Visibility
- Grid Height and Layout
- Age Appropriate Activities
- Spatial Comfort
- Traffic Flow and Control
- Multiple Play Modalities
- Accessibility for All Abilities
- Internal and External Barriers
Creating a 'standard' contained play design can be
short-sighted. Your playground vendor must understand the dynamics of
child interaction and design with safe, fun, entertainment in mind but
also with traffic and flow through the play-structure. Thoughtful design
takes this into account with an emphasis on layout and a targeted activity
mix, allowing children of different ages and abilities to maneuver comfortably
from activity to activity.
By understanding and creating a design within these principles,
operators can better ensure a great, comfortable play experience as well
as a genuine repeat play desire - which translates into a stronger return
on your indoor playground investment.
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