A banner that leaves the lesson

A child studying a map tapped the banner. The App Store opened, on another game. The lesson was over.

BrainDash is made for children and families. The free version is paid for by ads, and those ads are contextual: they are not chosen by following a child across other apps. That still left a placement problem. A banner sits on the screen the whole time the child is looking, reading, and tapping labels.

The ad network does not let us show a banner and ignore taps. Covering the banner so the tap does nothing would break the network’s rules. So the banner came off the home board and off the study card. There is nowhere else to put it. Every other screen is also something the child taps: the question, or the choice to watch a video.

What stayed is a video between some rounds, and a video the player finishes to open the next cards. Skipping that video does not unlock the cards. If a video cannot play, the player can continue without it. A parent can remove the videos with a one-time purchase, behind a short problem only a parent is meant to solve.

A tap on a video can still open the advertiser. That is a chosen moment, not a miss while reading a label. It is the trade we kept.