Fungooms dot com is designed for children of pre-school age and perhaps even younger. Fungooms takes a unique approach for a kids website. Not only does the website market toward the infant to pre-school demographic (a rarity), Fungooms takes a different approach altogether in how the site is designed to entertain its young users.
Most websites that skew toward a younger user bombard the senses with learning games, shapes and puzzles. Fungooms takes a simplistic approach with soothing animation and calming music. Sure, there is an aspect of learning to various facets of the site. The “teaching” aspect of Fungooms is less complex resulting in a calmer web experience. The music throughout fungooms is soothing. The experience reminds me of a Baby Einstein Video only far more interactive and engaging.
Fungooms is a free site. There is a rotating banner ad on the homepage. There are interior “google ad” links but are barely noticeable at the very bottom of the screen and won’t hamper a child’s experience.
Fungooms dot com uses a variety of new worlds and games to explore with a simplistic mouse-use only approach. There aren’t any words, numbers or math problems. Children can use their mouse to explore different colorful characters’ worlds and play the unique (yet simple) games within those worlds. A few examples of the games include: spoken stories, musical click games, taking pictures of a landscape to reveal animated animals, spinning a windmill to generate electricity, blowing up balloons and decorating a carnival, planting a garden and many more.
When I initially tried fungooms dot com, it took me a minute or so to see the redeeming value for its users. I haven’t encountered a site quite like this. As I stated above, I’m used to seeing pre-school websites that crank up the volume and visuals while bombarding kids with learning. Fungooms dot com is truly unique in that the games and learning are actually a calming experience.
