Times Up for Kids

Time’s Up For Kids is a very simple utility app. It allows a parent or teacher to set a timer for the use of an iPod, iPhone or iPad. They can set this timer to anywhere between 1 and 98 minutes, after which a series of alerts will pop-up, blocking the child’s use of the device.

Beyond this there is also the ability to add users to the app, and the ability to track how many times each user has set a timer over a number of days.

The app’s biggest drawback is its lack of usability; upon opening the app, the first thing I was presented with was a prompt to enter a passcode. I had no knowledge of a passcode, and had not set one beforehand, but eventually managed to guess it from a list of commonly used passcodes (I won’t say it here in case anyone using the app hasn’t changed it from the default). As well as this, when changing between users you don’t choose from a list or enter a username, instead you press a button in the app to cycle through the configured users. It took me a while to figure out that the button had a purpose, as there isn’t much noticeable feedback from pressing it.

In terms of functionality, the app works wonders, but not necessarily out of the box. The first time I used it, I set it for 3 minutes, after which a stream of banners began telling me my time was up. For those unaware of the difference, an alert is the pop-up you get on your iOS device which you need to push a button to progress, whereas a banner is the notification you get at the top of the screen which then goes away. I found that by default the app was using banners rather than alerts, and while this is changeable in the settings, it would be nice for alerts to be used by default. Banners do not stop the user from using the device; they just make it rather annoying to do so.

In summary, I found that the app fulfilled its goal, but unfortunately was in need of more usability testing and feedback, and was generally un-polished. And for a paid app (£2.49 at time of writing), a little polish is expected.

You can download Times Up for Kids on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.