All the World's a Game: Interactive Map Gives Kids the Travel Bug

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Simon Schuetz, a German entrepreneur, created Kidsmap as a way to get children excited about travel.

Image: Simon Schuetz

By Melissa Goldin2014-04-08 15:00:50 UTC

Simon Schuetz didn't know Easter Island was a real place until he was 15, but the statue-laden land became the best trip he ever took once he finally saw it with his own eyes years later.

Now the German expat, who currently lives in Bali, wants to inspire lifelong exploration in a younger generation with an interactive map that not only teaches kids what they should learn about the world, but also tries to anticipate what they might actually want to know.

See also: Food Maps Turn the World Into Delicious Art

"I was always fascinated by maps," Schuetz told Mashable. "They challenge your boundaries, you can see places you can't otherwise see. You start to wonder about different places, what they might be."

In its final incarnation, Kidsmap will function both as a game and a map. The 38" x 22" board will feature a simplified rendering of the world that highlights topographical features, such as deserts, tundras or mountain ranges. It will include approximately 140 re-attachable stickers (drawn by Schuetz' business partner, illustrator Lars Seiffert), which showcase anything from famous landmarks to animals indigenous to different regions of the world, and an equal amount of quiz cards with facts spanning from wildlife to technology.

Schuetz expects that everyone will use Kidsmap differently, but he is working with game designers to develop a few different suggestions. A Kickstarter campaign, which launched Tuesday, will raise funds for production.

Schuetz hopes Kidsmap will inspire children to explore the world. He doesn't have a checklist of things he wants kids to learn from the map; he just wants to get them excited about adventure. If kids associate an interest with a geographic location, they might be more inclined to actually travel. The key, he believes, is simplicity: Sticking to the basics and not loading the map with oodles of extra information and illustrations.

This concept of clarity isn't new. Jim McMahon (a.k.a. "Mapman"), senior cartographer at Scholastic Classroom Magazines, creates maps that appear in the company's 28 magazines geared toward specific age groups, from kindergartners to high school students. He stressed the importance of making a map appropriate for the audience it is intended for; for example, young children often do best with simple shapes, while teenagers can handle more detail.

Kidsmap is intended for kids ages 5 to 10, a significant age gap at such a young age, and McMahon wonders if it will effectively appeal to both ends of the spectrum. Regardless, Schuetz believes that the younger a child is exposed to travel the better, so as to cement the importance of exploration.

So far, about 20 kids have taken Kidsmap for a trial run. The beta testers include twins Myles and Austin Wall, who at 10 years old are already seasoned travelers. They have been to a total of 21 countries so far. Their father, Peter Wall, was pleased with the product.

"They love to travel and they love games so it's a deadly combination for them," he told Mashable. "It doesn't feel like you're learning, it feels like you're playing."

An avid traveler, Schuetz has lived in Switzerland, the U.S., Peru, Brazil and Chile before moving to Bali, but wishes that he had started earlier. Maps, he believes, are not just a means of getting from one place to another, but can be the beginning of adventures. His startup, Awesome Maps, has seen great success in past projects. A bucket list map that suggests can't-miss activities in different regions of the world raised nearly $60,000 on Kickstarter in July, significantly more than its $8,000 goal.

Part of Kidsmap's charm is its tactility; it's not an app or computer game. Wall, the father of the 10-year-old twins, said he has tried a number of geography quiz apps, but didn't feel a desire to return to them. Plus, he said, Myles and Austin are active kids who respond to physical products like Kidsmap.

"Every physical product has this emotional reaction you can lose when it's digital," Schuetz said. "It's free of distractions, you can see the whole thing, you can touch it, you can move it around."

Schuetz wants Kidsmap to be a map of the world made by the people of the world. He will be taking suggestions about what to feature on the stickers from Kickstarter backers.

If the campaign is successful, a basic version of Kidsmap will cost about $35, and will be sold on the Awesome Maps website as early as August.

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Topics: Family & Parenting, Gaming, kickstarter, Children, Lifestyle, maps, travel, Travel & Leisure, Work & Play