Play equipment can lead to improvement in following capabilities within children if designed appropriately:

• Sensory skills: Enhancement of the visual, hearing, and touching senses can increase the child’s cognition capability about his or her surrounding atmosphere.
• Motor skills: A child’s muscular growth and level of harmony in his or her muscular motion can be attained through play equipment that is designed in accordance with his age and interest.
• Cognitive capabilities: A child employs his or her acquired skills alongwith his or her surrounding environment to deduce meaning of something. This process is greatly facilitated by an aptly designed play equipment that lets the child explore his surroundings and bolster his learning repertoire.
• Social skills: Skills such as cooperation and tidiness are the prerequisites for social relations and the children acquire such skills in the course of group games
• Affective skills:These skills help the child in bringing about coherence between his or her actions and reactions with the play equipment.

• Age appropriateness: The playground equipment should be designed for the age of the children who will use it. In elementary schools this means 5-12 years and for Pre-schools, it is around 2-5 years.
• Falls to surface: The surfacing material should be adequate to ensure that falls from the optimum elevation of the equipment will not cause life threatening head injuries. This means that no equipment should have a designated play surface greater than ten feet in height.
• Equipment Maintenance: All equipment should be regularly monitored and repaired according to manufacturer’s specifications. Lack of equipment maintenance is listed as the primary cause of injury in 60% of all injuries.

The following parameters may be considered while designing play equipment.

• Location: The location of playground apparatus is crucial for ensuring safety of the end users of the play equipment. The apparatus for young kids should be separate form that used by older children. Repairs must be made promptly, and no gear in need of maintenance should be used until the necessary repairs have been made.
• Protective surfaces: The surface under and around the play equipment should be soft enough to cushion a fall. Improper surfacing material under and around play equipment is one of the leading causes of playground related injuries.
• Hazard-free equipment: The play equipment should be void of sharp edges and any part thereof that may cause strangulation. Special attention should be paid to the area at the top of slides and sliding devices. Moreoever, guardrails should be installed on elevated surfaces for enhanced safety of younger kids.
• Colour: The colours used in designs should have high contrast and  boast harmonizing blend of various colours, since the children in age groups that use the playgrounds are attracted towards areas with bright and vibrant colours.