The best that German web designers could come up with

fragFINN, the new government sponsored internet portal for kids.

Given that this portal is supposed to attract as much of the German youngsters as possible, and given it is a project by the government, I would have expected more. Much more. It really likes look some 60+ year old politicians think: “Let’s do something cool for kids.” I simply cannot believe that there was a single kid involved in the design or testing process.

Maybe I’m being overcritical but I just can’t really see it attracting millions of users every day. Why not have the games on the top and the chat further up and, anyways, have it more interactive, use flash and so on. And drop all that clutter of “sponsored by”. Which kid gives a f***? Hide it behind a link (“sponsored by…”).

Even some ads for online bidding are catchier (where the ad itself is already an interactive game). And what kind of games do they offer? “Wettrennen mit Tigerente“. It could hardly be any lamer. What’s next? Games where kids can learn how to sort garbage for recycling? They’ll really get hooked on that stuff, I bet!

Their search engine is pretty cute though. 12 results for “terrorism” and 25 child friendly results for “sex“.