Stop Guessing What Kids Want. Ask Them.
THE KIDS ENGAGEMENT SERIES #03 What IKEA — and a few unimpressed 10-year-olds — can teach us about better children’s engagement.
There’s a problem with creating things for children: adults usually create them. We decide what children will enjoy, what will keep them entertained, what they should eat, what they should learn and what is “age appropriate”. Most of the time, we do it with the very best intentions, but how often do we actually ask the children themselves?
Because there can be quite a gap between what adults think children will engage with and what children actually want to engage with. Once you start looking for that gap, you see it everywhere.
Take restaurants.
This is something we’ve been thinking about a lot recently at The Wonder Company.
You go out for a family meal and younger children will often be given something to do — perhaps a colouring sheet, a couple of puzzles and some crayons. Great when you’re five. But what happens when you’re 9, 10 or 11?
Suddenly, the activity designed for “kids” can feel babyish. They don’t want the colouring sheet, they’re not interested in completing a maze designed for a six-year-old, and often the alternative is simply… nothing.
Food can follow exactly the same pattern. One minute you’re choosing from the children’s menu and then, because you’ve apparently crossed some invisible age threshold, you’re expected to choose an adult meal, in an adult portion, from an adult menu.
But a 10-year-old hasn’t suddenly become an adult.
There’s a whole stage in between that can get overlooked. And it made us wonder whether the problem is really that older children are difficult to engage, or whether we simply stop giving them things that have been designed with them in mind.
IKEA does something rather clever.
IKEA creates an enormous number of products and experiences for children, but rather than relying entirely on adults to decide what children want, it has developed ways of bringing children into the conversation. Through initiatives including its Kids Advisory Panel, IKEA asks children about play, their homes, what matters to them and what they would like to see. Those insights can then feed into the company’s thinking and product development.
One example is IKEA’s BLÅVINGAD collection. The range was developed around ocean life, with children’s views helping IKEA understand their interests and the sea creatures they particularly wanted to see represented. Instead of beginning and ending with “we think children will like this”, the process included a much more useful question: “What do children actually think?”
That principle also runs through IKEA’s wider research. Its 2024 Play Report involved 7,000 children and parents across seven countries and explored what play means to families, what gets in the way and what children themselves value about it. The interesting part isn’t simply that IKEA conducts research; it’s that it recognises children as a source of insight in their own right, rather than relying solely on what adults say children want.
It’s a remarkably simple idea: if you’re designing something for children, involve children in designing it.
Which brought us back to those restaurant colouring sheets.
We didn’t set out thinking, “Restaurants need a tween activity product.” We started by noticing a problem. Our own children were reaching an age where the activities they were being handed simply weren’t interesting to them anymore.
Instead of concluding that older children didn’t want activities at restaurants, we started asking different questions. What feels too young? What would they actually pick up? What kinds of puzzles, challenges and content would appeal to them? What would make waiting for food more enjoyable without making them feel as though they were being treated like a little kid?
That thinking has helped shape something new that we’re about to launch at The Wonder Company: a restaurant product created specifically for tweens. It isn’t an adult product made smaller, and it isn’t a young children’s activity made slightly harder. The aim is to create something specifically around that audience and that slightly forgotten stage of childhood.
Most importantly, though, the process started with the problem rather than the product. We observed, questioned and listened before deciding what we should make.
There’s a formula here that almost any organisation can use.
You don’t need IKEA’s research budget or an international children’s panel to do this. The same principle can be applied on a much smaller scale, and we think there are four useful stages:
1. SPOT IT
Look at where children are dropping off. What are they ignoring? What are they abandoning halfway through? What are they being given but never choosing for themselves? If something isn’t working, resist the temptation to immediately assume the child is the problem. Their lack of engagement is information.
2. ASK IT
Talk to the children you’re trying to engage, rather than relying only on their parents, your team or the adults commissioning the project. And try to move beyond questions such as “Do you like this?” Children can be very good at telling adults what they think they want to hear.
Instead, ask which option they would choose, what they would get rid of, what feels too young, what they’d change or whether they would actually do it if nobody told them to. Those answers are often far more revealing than a polite “yes”.
3. CHANGE IT
Then use what you’ve learnt. Consultation only has value if you’re genuinely prepared to let it influence the outcome. You might discover that the language needs to change, the format isn’t right or your age brackets are too broad. You may even discover that the product you were planning to make isn’t the product your audience needs at all.
That’s not a failed idea. That’s useful insight arriving at exactly the right time.
4. TEST IT
Finally, take it back to them. See what they actually choose, rather than what they say they’ll choose. Watch where they spend their time, what they come back to and where they lose interest. Then refine it again.
SPOT → ASK → CHANGE → TEST.
It isn’t a complicated formula, but it makes one important shift: children move from being the people at the end of the process to being part of the process itself.
How could you use it?
If you run a hotel, perhaps it means finding out what children actually want to discover or do when they arrive, rather than automatically putting a colouring book in the welcome pack. If you’re a visitor attraction, you could find out which parts of the experience children remember afterwards — and which they walk straight past.
For a council or charity, it might mean testing whether the resource you’ve created feels like something children would choose to engage with, rather than simply something adults want them to engage with. And for a restaurant, it could mean looking at what happens when a child outgrows the crayons but is still very definitely a child.
Whatever your organisation does, the starting point is the same:
When was the last time you actually asked a child?
The Wonder Test: IKEA
PICK IT UP ✓ IKEA starts with children’s interests rather than simply assuming what will capture their attention.
GET INVOLVED ✓ Children aren’t just consumers of the finished product; their views can help influence what gets created.
STICK WITH IT ✓ Understanding how children genuinely play gives IKEA a stronger foundation for creating things they want to use.
KEEP IT ✓ The resulting products and experiences become part of children’s homes and everyday play.
SHARE IT ✓ Play naturally creates opportunities for shared experiences with friends and family.
REMEMBER IT ✓ The experience connects back to a distinctive and recognisable brand.
Wonder Score: 6/6 ⭐
The Wonder Verdict: IKEA’s cleverest idea isn’t a particular children’s product. It’s recognising that the people you’re trying to engage might know something you don’t.
One thing to take away…
Before you create your next children’s activity, product, campaign or experience, don’t begin with “What shall we make?”
Start with “What isn’t working — and have we asked the children why?”
Then use the formula:
SPOT IT → ASK IT → CHANGE IT → TEST IT.
Because children aren’t just the audience you’re trying to reach. They might be your best source of insight too.
About The Wonder Company
Every organisation has a story to tell. We help children discover it.
The Wonder Company creates engaging activity books, packs, games and resources that help brands and organisations connect with children in ways that are fun, meaningful and memorable.
Want to create something children will remember?
Comments