My only addition is to ask for a band on scroll bars in a kids app, especially on the bottom of the page.
Do you mean a "ban" on scroll bars?
Yes, my fingers don't always type what I expect...
A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
81–90 of 195 posts
Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
My son (4yo) barely watches TV (maybe one hour a week or so) but spends a good amount of time on the iPad. There's a wide range of activities on the iPad, going from plain video games to pure learning bits (letters, sounds, cooking, 3d moves etc) which makes it much more interesting than only "video games" IMO (and this generates a lot of discussions centered around learning too!). On the frequency of use: it's prett…
Well, sounds like your son is doing great, that's wonderful. :) I concede your point that the iPad can stretch/blur the notion of what a "game" is, in interesting ways. Although I am inclined to limit my kids' "screen time" (to zero, at two years old), I would never choose to limit my kids' "book time",. But perhaps my thinking about it is too coarse, since iPad apps can be hybrids of both, or combine their attribute…
"But perhaps my thinking about it is too coarse, since iPad apps can be hybrids of both."
Right. How would your screen time limitation work if the screen was being used to read a book? And the book may be even more interactive than a traditional book. Then there's a line that can get crossed where the book has now become a game. But even then, if it's educational and informative as a book is, why limit that just because it's on a screen?
Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
#83I think in app purchases for apps targeting users under 13 is a really bad idea. Even if there isn't some dark premise behind it, I feel like an asshole every time I tell my son "no" I wont buy you extra {whatever} for your game at just 2.99. Kids games should be reasonably priced(0-5 dollars) and not monetize with ads or upsells.
In app purchasing is used by many developers as a kind of shareware. What's so insidious about try before you buy?
Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
#84[deleted]
Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
#85I'm curious: don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all ? I'm convinced that watching TV is harmful to a child's intellectual development. (And there's an established body of evidence to support that.) As a kid, I hated my hippie Montessori teacher mom for allowing me only one hour of TV per week as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s (elementary school; I usually chose t…
Spot on observations. Your mother did it right. Do the same thing for your child. We do something similar with our 20-mo old. We're less hardcore about the TV^WNetflix thing than your mother. If he wants to watch Eeebee or Old MacDonanld he tells us and we let him (within reason). About 4 weeks ago, he learned to play with Duplo building blocks (which we've had for several months), and he almost never asks to watch T…
I feel that with the TV watching, that cable TV with commercials is worse than something like Netflix with no-commercials.
Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
#86I'm curious: don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all ? I'm convinced that watching TV is harmful to a child's intellectual development. (And there's an established body of evidence to support that.) As a kid, I hated my hippie Montessori teacher mom for allowing me only one hour of TV per week as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s (elementary school; I usually chose t…
> don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all?
> My own kid won't be here for a few more months, so I'm not preaching; just honestly asking.
> Shouldn't kids of that age, instead of learning in-game physics, be learning real physics? Like with balls, marbles, and blocks, running and falling down, and not with animated honeypots and flying unicorns?
You are in fact preaching, just not from direct experience raising children.
Please do not give your future 2-year-old marbles to learn physics with. Choking hazard. Harder to swallow an iPad.
Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
#87I'm curious: don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all ? I'm convinced that watching TV is harmful to a child's intellectual development. (And there's an established body of evidence to support that.) As a kid, I hated my hippie Montessori teacher mom for allowing me only one hour of TV per week as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s (elementary school; I usually chose t…
>And there's an established body of evidence to support that
I don't think there is any evidence to support that at all. Do you have a source?
Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
#88I'm curious: don't any other people here think 2-year-old kids shouldn't be playing iPad games at all ? I'm convinced that watching TV is harmful to a child's intellectual development. (And there's an established body of evidence to support that.) As a kid, I hated my hippie Montessori teacher mom for allowing me only one hour of TV per week as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s (elementary school; I usually chose t…
Regrettably one of the biggest offenders in terms of usability for kids apps is Apple itself. The introduction of multi-touch gestures made a complete mess out of kids apps. For example, if you've ever watched a young one interact with an iPad you would have seen them plant their paws on the screen and do things with 3+ fingers very frequently.
Imagine what happens then: The whole app moves up, down or worst, sideways and switches to another app altogether. This interrupts the experience and is very confusing. I've seen this first hand. It is truly perplexing for children in the 2 to 7 year old range.
Another side-effect is that this makes it nearly impossible to write apps that actually encourage the little ones to fully engage and plant their paws on the device. Without turning off multi-touch gestures the app won't be good for more than three seconds of use. What's worst is that you also stand a good chance to get negative reviews on the app store from frustrated parents who don't understand that this is not the developer's fault.
Imagine the thrill of driving around town while your kids is playing with the iPad in the back seat and complaining/whining/crying every thirty seconds because he/she accidentally switched from the nice educational app you had them play with to your Facebook page due to accidentally using the app switching gesture. Brilliant.
While multi-touch gestures might be a good idea (I as an adult never use them) they provide no way for developers to disable them within their app, thus causing usability problems for kids (and probably some use cases with people with motor impediments).
Yes, the user can disable multi-touch altogether from settings. As an app developer you have to decide whether or not you want to put up a notice, warning or info page on your app warning parents about this problem and recommending that they disable multi-touch. Might you incur Apple's wrath for doing so? Don't know.
Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
#89Spot on regarding the in-app purchases. I have a rule of giving 1 star rating to any kid's game that has them regardless of how well it's done and if my kids actually enjoy the non-gimmicky part. Milking parents by making their kids beg and nag them is an unethical way to earn money.
> Milking parents by making their kids beg and nag them is an unethical way to earn money.
I believe that the primary way the market for children's toys and goods works, if you watch The Corporation they interview a psychologist that explicitly helps exploit this behaviour. So, you might find it unethical, but its the norm and avoiding it is like shopping for clothes that used no-sweatshop labour.
Re: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children
#90A plea to parents purchasing iPad Apps for children: Stop buying apps that do stuff like this. If you see that an app has a $99 in-app berry purchase, don't download or buy it. If you see that an app encourages children to poke and sling animals and destroy things, don't buy it. Do a small bit of research to see if the app was designed with your child's age in mind. Buy apps from trusted sources like http://tocaboca.…
Thanks! I've been a bit frustrated at the difficulty in finding good engaging games for young kids. My son is older and there's quite a bit he enjoys -- puzzles, world-building, etc. For my daughter, who's younger, there seems precious little.