Discovery Kids is a kids focused site from the Discovery Channel. Discover has an excellent reputation as a online kids TV and online kids educator. We therefore held high hopes for the website… but did it live up to the hype?

Discovery is an education-focused site and the videos here are all informative and educational in nature.

We went into an activity where you could build your own virtual volcano and then watch it explode. When it did so the different emissions from the volcano were all labeled up with further details available if you clicked on each.

Forget looking for games and activities; finding support on this website is a quest in its own right.

Unable to find the support option on the kids’ site, we visited the main Discovery.com site, and also struggled to find them.  However, persistence finally paid off and we were eventually rewarded with an email form.

An annoying feature is the fact that the mouse pointer is transformed into what looks like a crocodile jaw. This is fine and fun (it also has an initially cute but subsequently annoying ‘bite’ sound every time you click).

The visuals and sound quickly lost their appeal though, particularly as the image of the jaws has a tendency not to synchronize itself with mouse movements, making accurate clicking difficult.

Even when the jaws did seem to connect with the menu, we often had to click a few times to get it to work. A clear case of the novelty factor overtaking functionality!

This site is a learning site. Whilst some sites integrate learning within fun activities, this site tries to do the opposite.

On the whole they have done a good job in finding fun, interactive ways to support their programs.