Wordman blog • September 2026

Why Our Game Says "I'm Finished"

The game loop already worked when Daisy asked a question that pulled us out of it: what happens when a child wants to stop?

Until then, we had spent our time on what happens inside a round. A child hears a clue, thinks of the word and builds it from sounds. Finishing the round produced the usual design problem: show the result, then decide what the next button should do.

That last part looked small. It was not.

The button Daisy added

The obvious choices were "Next level" and "Try again". Both keep the game going. Daisy added a third: I'm finished.

We tried different arrangements and wording. The decision we kept was simple: all three choices use the same button style. "I'm finished" is not a small grey link below the exciting option. It sits at the top of the stack, the same size and weight as carrying on.

The point is not to make a child stop. It is to make stopping one of the ordinary things they can choose.

What happens after "I'm finished"

Daisy designed a goodbye screen with two sentences:

Well done. See you next time.

There is no score to improve, streak to protect or preview of the next reward. I added a fade from that screen into a quiet standby screen with a single restart arrow. That was our minimum version of a proper ending: the game acknowledges the choice, becomes still and waits to be started again.

It has helped our daughter move out of the game and on to whatever comes next. That is one family's experience, not a promise about every child. We would genuinely like to hear how other families get on with it.

Why the ending belongs in a screen-time conversation

Screen-time discussions often begin with minutes. Minutes are visible and countable, but they do not describe what the software does at the moment a family needs the session to finish.

An app can make carrying on effortless and stopping obscure. It can end a level by launching the next one, make the continuation button visually dominant, or place another reward just beyond the exit. It can also provide a real stopping point and treat leaving as a normal choice.

That does not settle every question about a child's use of a device. It is simply one useful part of the design to inspect.

A checklist for the end of any children's app

Finish one level and look at the screen before tapping anything.

• Does the activity actually end? A pause between endless rounds is not the same as a stopping point.
• Is leaving an obvious choice? A child should not have to find a tiny close icon or ask an adult where the exit is.
• Are the choices presented fairly? Look at size, colour, position and animation, not only the labels.
• Does the app accept the answer? After "finish", does it become quiet, or plead, punish and immediately advertise what comes next?
• Can the child return later without a penalty? Streak loss and expiring rewards can make an ordinary ending feel costly.

You do not need to know the vocabulary of product design to see these decisions. Count the buttons. Watch which one moves. Tap the option that leaves and notice whether the app respects it.

Our answer, for now

Our current answer is three equal buttons, "I'm finished" at the top, Daisy's goodbye screen and a fade to standby. It is deliberately modest. We have not solved family screen time, and an interface cannot remove every difficult transition.

What software can do is avoid making that transition harder on purpose. When our daughter says she is finished, we want the game to agree.