While a well-designed playground will be all fun and games for children, the planning and design of the playground will be serious business.
Playgrounds help kids develop social, coordination, and problem-solving skills. But children won’t enjoy these and other benefits if the playgrounds aren’t exciting and challenging enough to capture their interest.
That’s where playground designers come into the picture. What follows are some playground design best practices for people tasked with creating playground areas.
Follow Safety Standards
The first thing you need to do is ensure that the playground design complies with applicable safety standards. Even the most brilliant and innovative design will be for naught if your design doesn’t align with safety standards in your region.
Keep Budget in Mind
The worst thing you can do is design the best playground in the perfect location and then find out that you don’t have the budget to turn those plans into reality. While in the design stage, you need to stay on top of anticipated costs. You’ll need to consider expenses for materials, labor, and other things needed to design the perfect playground.
Ensure There’s Enough Shelter, Seating, and Shade
When designing a playground, make provisions for shelter, seating, and shade. It needs to be done in a way that is logical. Done properly, the shelter, seating, and shade elements will fit in with the overall design. These elements need to be functional and add to, rather than detract from, the aesthetic. Parks are supposed to attract people of all ages and abilities, so it’s important to ensure people can be accommodated.
Options for People of Different Abilities
When designing playgrounds, you should have an inclusive design mindset. The people using the playground will have different abilities. Many will be able-bodied, while others might have physical limitations. Remember this when considering the layout, types of playground equipment, safety surfacing options, and other things.
A playground should be accessible to the entire community rather than just specific segments within these communities.
Include Elements Suitable for People of All Ages
Playgrounds aren’t just for kids. They’re for people of all ages. So, ensure that you have a range of challenging equipment that can be enjoyed by children and their parents and guardians. Playgrounds that are designed to appeal to different demographics will invariably be more popular. Instead of being little-used spaces, they’ll be social hubs.
Add an Element to Encourage Social Events
You should also be mindful of creating gathering spaces when designing great playground areas. Picnic tables will allow families and friends to gather for picnics or to celebrate birthdays or other special events. Making space for a BBQ area will give people the space they need to throw some burgers and ribs on a grill. Getting out of the house and spending more time outdoors is always a good thing.
Remember Visibility
If you want to provide a great overall design for playgrounds, remember people like parents, guardians, and caregivers of the children use the grounds. They need to be able to keep an eye on their little ones. Adults will want to stay on top of what the kids in their care are up to. So, playground design must make it easy for them to do so. It’ll be a challenge to ensure optimal visibility. But it can be done.
Create a Playground With Connection to the Local Area
When designing a playground, you should ensure that there’s some connection or link between the playground and the local area. The design should communicate a story that ties the space with the community through features and aesthetics.
Effective playground design is an art that requires skill and vision. The best practices above provide some insight as to what should go into designing a playground that will be an asset in whatever community it’s in.
