5 things I’ve learned creating digital things for kids (in the arts and beyond)
I’m Sharna Jackson — An award-winning strategist, content creator and trustee working across culture, learning and entertainment with extensive experience leading online, offline and integrated projects for diverse audiences.
That’s what the first few lines of my CV say, anyway.
I’m a children’s content obsessive. I really really enjoy making and being around the creation of things — mostly interactive things — for kids and young people.
For the past 13-odd years, I’ve worked with, for (and against) institutions and bodies including Tate, BAFTA, Upswing, The Broad and I’m currently at the impossibly-personalised children’s publisher, Lost My Name. I’ve written a couple of books, and just curated a show called Playground at Site Gallery in Sheffield. Like a Beach Boy, I Get Around.
I’m often asked why I work for and with children — “why do you care so much?”
I tell them I’m doing it for my forever-love, David.
I’m not really, (mostly) but, the very real truth is this — the media that was my babysitter and the content I ate voraciously as a kid utterly shaped my childhood and informed my future. Detect no lies when I tell you I have bonded with people and made friends for life, solely based on a shared love of Labyrinth.
Imagine if the things you made could have a long-lasting impact like that? Don’t you want to be in the business of making memories? I do.
So here are some learnings from the business of making memories — some pain I’ve endured so you don’t have to — condensed into five parts.
1 — KNOW YOUR PEOPLE
You really need to know who your audience is. Get an understanding of who they are while recognising they’re not a homogenous mass. How old are these children you’re trying to reach? Why are you trying to reach them? What are they watching? Is Minecraft still a thing? Do they want to try VR? Why DID Taylor Swift break up with Calvin Harris? Do they care? How does this knowledge impact your institution and what you’re making? What are their expectations from similar content? What does this mean for partnership deals you may or may not strike to cross-promote your content?
Talk to them — find out what they want. On the other hand, also Listen to Your Heart, like Roxette. Sometimes they don’t know what they want. Fickle, pesky children.
Define your audience and keep them in mind AT ALL TIMES. Be their rep on the project. It sounds obvious but it’s easy to forget if your project has a million internal and external stakeholders, which they all invariably do.
“Finished” content (but let’s be real, digital content doesn’t ends unless you’re strict) can and will end up very different from initial concepts, but if your audience needs and requirements are kept at the forefront of your thinking then you’re good.
A few other things. “Children” — people aged five to 12 — is a massive age group to aim at. Try and narrow it down to find a sweet spot. Our focus at Tate Kids was five to 12 when I worked there, but I’d say nine year olds were our core audience.
Similarly, when I was the Creative Director at Hopster, a TV and Learning app for preschoolers, the advertised age group was three-six, but really it was aimed at a solid four. By the time kids reached five (and started school), many wanted to watch Minecraft Videos, Animal Fails and Unboxings on YouTube.
Always design up — so the look and feel should be at least 2 years older than the age of the intended audience — kids don’t like anything that feels babyish, or for kids younger than them. Age it up, make them feel like they’ve been let in on a secret for older kids.
Some quick tips. Don’t patronise them. Don’t try to be down. Don’t say ‘cool’, definitely no Hey Bae Internz ❤. Refrain from emoticons (unless you can deploy them ironically), don’t over punctuate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, no Comic Sans or Chalkboard, no primary colours, no throwing stars and glitter over it. Absolutely no swapping s for z. If you don’t know your ATM from your IDK, STFU.
When designing for kids, you’re more often than not reaching a dual audience. Do you need to reach your audience through gatekeepers — parents, teachers, community leaders, other adults? Who are the gatekeepers for your project. How do they need to be addressed?
2 — KNOW YOURSELF
Know your brand. What are your institutional values? What does that mean for your output?
Your positioning will guide what kind of content it makes sense for you to produce — and keeping your mission in mind will help you get your idea signed off internally if needs be.
Take Tate Kids, I started that website in 2007 and ran it alongside related activities for about six years. It’s a programme to get kids engaged with the Tate Collection. In May 2008 we had the Street Art exhibition, where we commissioned artists from around the world to use the side of Tate Modern as their canvas.
I had just launched Tate Kids with a game called Tate Paint and there was some end of the financial year money floating about. So I took some and asked my agency to reskin the painting game into Street Art, a tool where the kids could do the same as those artists, and paint on the side on Tate Modern.
So that background is a photo of the real Tate Modern in London, and for the soundtrack I asked bands at Tate to submit a track via our intranet. The more buy-in you get, the easier it is to do your job.
Some of the works were legitimately good. It got picked up by Street Art blogs so I think some adults artists got involved.
3 — KNOW WHAT YOU WANT…
…AND understand what is you are asking for.
Real things I’ve heard:
“We want a game!” “Why?” “Because kids love games?” That’s not enough.
“Let’s make Call of Duty but for Art!” “What’s your budget?” “Basically £2 and some comps.” That’s not enough.
“Let’s make a video platform like YouTube, but for our content only. A channel.” “Why?” “Because then we can keep all our content in one place and keep it safe.” That’s not enough.
Understand what it is you are trying to communicate, understand who you are communicating it to and why YOU are communicating it and take it from there. Maybe it is a game, or maybe it’s a series of tweets. Maybe it is a platform, or maybe it’s your fantastic content on YouTube.
I LOVE games, I used them a lot in the past like teachers used plenaries, so as a hook, a way into deeper content that you hold, but unless you have a great way marketing them they can be very beautiful and engaging but very limited in terms of reach. They need an entire dedicated marketing effort to push, and when you are working with small teams who have targets against blockbuster shows it’s not going to get through. The game is not in and of itself the marketing tool.
Best case is to tie your work (if you can) into other events or work that’s happening in your institution so you can all piggy back of each other’s excellent work.
And that actually takes me quite nicely on to…
4 — FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS
Make friends. Whether you’re an art-museum-juggernaut or a small gallery with three members of staff, getting kids to come to your content is really very hard (there are many OTHER distractions), so where possible, take your content to where kids are and forge relationships with external partners. They have the audience, you have the cultural capital.
When working with external agencies — game developers, web agencies, branding experts — let them work WITH you, not FOR you. Collaborate. Don’t let the power of being a client go to your head. Your strengths lie in the knowledge of your audience, your brand and your assets. Their strength is, you hope, in the creative and technological development of your content. They probably have more experience than you in developing digital, so listen to them. To this end, I would create quite loose and open project briefs. I had a good idea of what I want and when it needs to go live, but let the agency fill in the blanks. Give them some breathing room to do what they do best.
That’s external. Internal collaboration can be way more difficult. Working internally at Tate was described as “trying to turn a whale” a myriad of different departments with different agendas and different approaches. It was stressful. Don’t let it happen to you. Be the peacemaker. Do it for the kids.
5 — BROTHERHOOD
This note is about creating communities, or to warn you off doing so.
To paraphrase from one of the best films of the 80s, perhaps ever: “If you build it, they will come” but then what?
Communities are A LOT of work. A LOT. Sometimes no one comes to your community and have to spend a LOT of time lassoing kids from across the internet to join you on your website. Or you might get the opposite. At Tate most of the games generated content (all of which had to be moderated before going live) and to keep it fresh, you had to moderate every day. Once, one Christmas, I got slack and didn’t check, and was faced with 18,000 pieces of digital arts and craft to check. Me + Whisky vs CMS = PAIN.
It was great, but unsustainable for one person to manage.
So my recommendation is to investigate other ways of creating communities and I’m really interested in the possibilities of Popjam. It’s a platform where a community exists, and channels (read: brands/institutions) provide their own content — competitions and questions that they pose to the children. Similarly, YouTube Kids and other SVOD platforms like Hopster and Azoomee are interesting propositions that are growing all the time. There has been a tendency to hold on to your content with a death grip, keep it for your websites, but be zen with it and let it out.
So, to sum up:
1 Know your audience
2 Know your brand
3 Make sure you know what you want
4 Get friendly
5 Don’t create communities, let other platforms take the strain
Any questions, reach out to me on Twitter or email me. Never call — I won’t answer.
