The TOGGO avatars, as fictional computer-generated characters, are intended to give the users of the TOGGO website a face in its community-area called “TOGGO Treff” (club) without endangering the privacy of the kids. On the one hand, the kids should be able to identify with their personal avatar while on the other being able to present themselves as they want to be recognized by other TOGGO users.

Of course, it entails a huge bandwidth of element specifications to construct these very individual avatars. The avatar configurator required a categorization of its elements for an intuitive and easy usability which is very important for kids. It was a challenge to juggle these two factors without going beyond the scope of the basic graphical conditions. And, last but not least, all the elements should have a TOGGO look & feel and be part of the corporate identity of the website.

The test results of TOGGO.de from over 50 kids have already shown that elements of art succeeded with a good mix of design, functionality and usability. The launch of the “TOGGO Treff” (club) led to an immense increase in page views within the first month. The number of users exceeded 100,000 after just a few weeks.The children mainly use the communication possibilities of chat and instant messages. Here, parents appreciate that their kids have a virtual contact person (the chat police) when offences are committed and undesirable situations are averted.The newly-gained users and the wide choice of possibilities of the “TOGGO Treff” open new ways for the marketing of child-specific products through presentations and sponsoring in this sector.