From Entertainment to Edutainment: The IdeaCrate Approach

Shifa Yusuff Ali, Founder & CEO, IdeaCrate Edutainment Company

The children’s play centre industry has traditionally focused on entertainment. What made you believe the model needed to evolve?

The shift to thoughtful play has been gradual, but it’s now more evident than ever. Families today are far more intentional about how and where they spend their time. Parents are not just looking for somewhere to take their children on a weekend. They want tobe reassured that the experience is meaningful, supports their child’s development, and adds value to their time together as a family.

Research has proven that children learn most effectively through play, but not all play delivers at the same value. There is a real difference between passive, unstructured time and play that is designed to build motor skills, social confidence, and creative thinking. The industry has largely treated play as a generic offering, while we saw an opportunity to treat it as a discipline, rooted in child development and intentional design.

The commercial dimension is also that in a maturing market, the concepts that endure are those that give families a genuine reason to return—not just because they are convenient, but because the experience is consistently valuable.

Purpose-driven play is better for children, and it is a stronger business model.

You often speak about creating environments that work for both children and parents. How important is experience design in building modern family spaces?

It is central to everything we do. I have always believed that family spaces should serve the whole family, not just the child. Too often, the parent experience is an afterthought. But when you design with both in mind, the entire dynamic changes.

I have always wanted to build a business that is close to the community it serves. Parenting can be overwhelming at times, and it was important to me to create spaces where both parents and children feel supported, welcome, and connected. At Orange Wheels, for example, parents are not spectators. The activities are designed so families can participate together. That shared experience is what turns a visit into something families genuinely value.

Good experience design also extends well beyond the physical space. It is the journey from the moment a family discovers us online, through the booking process, the arrival, the time spent inside, and the follow-up afterward.

Every touchpoint either builds trust or erodes it. We think carefully about all of them.

Many industries are moving toward experience-led models. How do you approach designing environments that are both educational and engaging?

When we think about designing our spaces, we always start with the question: what do we want the family to feel and take away from this experience? That is what keeps the balance between educational value and genuine engagement.

Our approach starts with developmental outcomes. What do we want a child to gain from this experience? Is it fine motor skills, social interaction, creative expression, or problem-solving? We work backward from those outcomes to design activities that deliver them through play. The child experiences fun. The parent sees growth. Both leave satisfied.

We also invest heavily in the sensory and spatial design of our environments. Colour, lighting, sound levels, and material choices are not just aesthetic decisions; they are developmental ones. Overstimulation is the enemy of focused play. Our spaces are deliberately calmer, more intentional, and more thoughtfully curated than what you typically see in this category.

It requires constant iteration. We observe how children and families interact with our spaces, we gather feedback, and we refine. Design is never finished. It is a living process.

Technology is increasingly shaping how families interact with these spaces. How are digital tools helping enhance the experience?

Children today are already exposed to high levels of digital stimulation, and that shapes how they engage with the world around them. As a result, we are very deliberate about how technology features in our spaces.

For parents, technology plays a clear role in simplifying the journey—whether through booking systems, communication, or feedback loops. It allows the experience to feel more seamless and predictable.

For children, the approach is more measured. The intention is not to replicate screen-based engagement inside a physical environment, but to support interaction in a way that enhances the experience without overwhelming it.

We are also building capabilities that help parents better understand how their child engaged during a visit, including the types of activities and developmental areas explored.That is meaningful technology. It adds value without replacing human interaction.

Our position is clear: technology should enhance the experience, not become the experience. Children need tactile, physical, human-led play. That is non-negotiable for us.

From a business perspective, what have been the biggest operational challenges in scaling physical experience-driven businesses?

The biggest challenge is maintaining experience quality as you grow. In a product business, you can standardise production. In an experience business, you are always relying on people, environments, and interactions, and those are inherently harder to scale consistently.

Our play facilitators are central to what makes our spaces work. They are not just supervising children; they are guiding play, engaging families, and creating moments. Recruiting, training, and retaining the right talent remains most significant investment. You cannot scale culture from a document.

Real estate is another constraint. Our experiences require specific spatial conditions—layout, flow, and ceiling height—that are not always easy to accommodate within standard retail formats.

Scaling successfully requires discipline in both operations and decision-making.

With plans to expand regionally and globally, what does scaling an experience-based brand require?

It requires being very clear about what is non-negotiable and what can flex. For us, the philosophy is non-negotiable: purposeful play, family-centric design, and developmental intent. Those principles travel across markets. But how they are expressed might look different depending on the region and its culture.

Operationally, scaling requires robust systems. We are investing in standardised training programmes, operational playbooks, and quality frameworks that allow us to onboard new locations without diluting the experience.

But systems alone are not enough. It needs to be underpinned by strong local leadership that understands both the brand, customer and the market.

Ultimately, scaling an experience brand is slower than scaling a product brand. And I am comfortable with that. Growing too fast at the expense of experience quality would undermine the very thing that makes IdeaCrate valuable.

With so many indoor play options available, how does IdeaCrate differentiate itself?

Three things set us apart.

First, intent. Everything in our spaces exists for a reason. We do not add attractions because they are trendy or because competitors have them. Every activity, every design choice, every programme is rooted in a developmental purpose. That level of intentionality is rare in this industry.

Secondly, the family experience. We do not just design for children. We design for families. That means parents are part of the experience, not on its sidelines. It means our spaces feel welcoming for adults, not just tolerable. And it means the overall visit is something families genuinely look forward to, together.

Third, our multi-brand approach. Orange Wheels, Orange Seeds, and Orange Hub each serve a different need and age group, but they are connected by a shared philosophy. A family can grow with us, from their child’s earliest years in a nursery environment through to more social, high-energy experiences as they get older. That continuity is something no single-concept competitor can offer.

Beyond that, the difference is often felt rather than seen.

It is the culture we have built: the way our team interacts with families, the warmth of the environment, the feeling you get when you walk through the door. That is what keeps families coming back.

Looking ahead, how do you see the edutainment industry evolving?

The edutainment market is projected to reach over nine billion dollars globally by 2031, and the Middle East is one of its fastest-growing regions. That growth is a clear signal: families are willing to invest in experiences that go beyond pure entertainment.

I expect the next few years to bring greater sophistication to how education and entertainment are combined. The early movers in this space are proving that parents will pay a premium for quality, purpose-driven experiences. That will attract more investment and raise the bar for the entire industry.

I also think community will become more central to how these spaces operate. The best family spaces will not just be places you visit; they will be places you belong to. We are already seeing this in our own business, where families build relationships with our team and with each other. That sense of belonging creates loyalty that no discount or promotion can match.

At the same time, I think the industry will move toward more thoughtful, right-sized concepts. Large-format entertainment centres with high capital costs and short refresh cycles are a challenging model. The future favours concepts that prioritise experience depth over scale.

For IdeaCrate, the direction is clear: continue to lead with purpose, invest in our people and our design, and build a brand that families trust.

What inspired the creation of IdeaCrate, and how has your vision evolved?

The idea behind IdeaCrate goes back about ten years, to a moment that many parents will recognise. I was looking for a space to take my children where the experience felt genuinely enriching, not just entertaining. That search made me realise there was a real gap in the market for family spaces that combined quality, purpose, and warmth.

I wanted to build something that sat at the intersection of education and entertainment, where play is designed with developmental intent and where families feel they belong. That conviction became the foundation of IdeaCrate: the belief that children deserve play experiences that are thoughtfully designed, and that parents deserve to be part of that journey.

The vision has evolved considerably since those early days. What started as a single concept has grown into three distinct brands: Orange Wheels, a premium indoor play concept focused on purposeful play and family connection; Orange Seeds, a Montessori-inspired nursery rooted in emotional wellbeing and early development; and Orange Hub, a social, high-energy space for older children and group experiences.

Each serves a different need, but all are built on the same philosophy. We have also become much more deliberate about end-to-end experience design, thinking beyond what happens inside the space to how families feel at every stage of their interaction with us.

As we have grown, the focus has shifted toward maintaining that intent at scale—ensuring that the experience remains consistent across locations. The goal now is to set new standards for what family spaces can be, starting in the UAE and expanding across the world.