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Parental Control for iOS (my weekend project)

10 points by vpdn 14y ago

rada 14y ago
The idea is outstanding. Thank you for making this. One nitpick. It is confusing that all your options are named "disable" and "allow" but your instructions say "if you set this control, it will disable...". So the control is "set" when it says "disabled"? It is also against convention in the sense that your options are negative-positive (disable-allow) when the convention is positive-negative (yes-no, set-unset, block-unblock, etc). Personally, I would change the controls to "block" and "unblock", and the instructions to something like "set this to block to disable and hide... ". In the very least, I would change them to "enable" and "disable", in that order. Edit: just wanted to add that after completing the whole sign-up, I found your overall style clear, concise and organic. You did get a lot of things "just right". Great job.
- vpdn 14y ago
  good points, thanks for the feedback! I'll look into how I can reword the text to make it clearer.
  - rada 14y ago
    One more suggestion, in case you don't know, there is this HN parents mailing list: groups.google.com/group/hn-parents I vaguely recall there being a discussion on it a while ago about this.
    - vpdn 14y ago
      Didn't know about the group, thanks for the pointer. Seems like the group is invite only (my signup is pending for approval). If you have a minute, would be great if you could help me post the link there, otherwise I'll wait for the approval and do it later.
      - rada 14y ago
        How about I test it out on my iPhone (left it at home today) and post a recommendation to the group tomorrow?
        vpdn 14y ago
        That would be awesome of course, thanks!
        deleted 14y ago
        [deleted]
  - rada 14y ago
    One more nitpick. During installation, I noticed the use of two app names, "ParentControl" for the app itself, and "Parental Control" otherwise. Could become a problem from SEO standpoint. And one last nitpick/question. It looks like the app requires a connection? Was it simply easier to develop, or did you want to simplify the sign up process by tying users' settings to their email? It would obviously be much better if this worked in Airplane mode. However, it's not a dealbreaker, and the unusually low friction of getting set up may be worth it (in fact, if that were the goal, I think it's kinda genius).
bruceboughton 14y ago
How does this work? Is there a public API for these settings or does it require jailbreaking/sideloading?
- rada 14y ago
  Just loaded it on my office iPad, no jailbreak. I believe it loads a standard iOS configuration profile via a home screen link.
- 0m1cr0n 14y ago
  The site generates a .mobileconfig file, which is an Apple plist file in XML format. The API is public, and easily reverse-engineered from other .mobileconfig files. The "app" that gets installed is actually a webclip, not a native iOS application. They embedded the icon as a base64 string inside the .mobileconfig. The webclip opens mobile Safari in fullscreen, with a link in the format of "http://mocava.de/ios/parental-control/profiles/UNIQUE_ID/parentalControl-active.html http://mocava.de/ios/parental-control/profiles/UNIQUE_ID/par..., where UNIQUE_ID ties back to the choices you made on the setup screen of their website. This will allow Mocava to track usage stats, which seems like a fair trade-off for a free service. You could roll your own version of this using Apple's Configurator application, however Mocava has done a decent job of streamlining the setup and installation.
  - bruceboughton 14y ago
    Thanks for the explanation. I'd forgotten about mobileconfig.
  - vpdn 14y ago
    "Mocava has done a decent job of streamlining the setup and installation." Thanks :) Usability wise, the hardest part was to explain that you have to install a profile to deactivate an existing profile. Also people associated the word "profile" with a facebook profile and thought it contains their personal data like name & address. To prevent confusion, the page I removed (almost) all instances of the word profile from the page.
hackmiester 14y ago
Why say "Toddler" ? Could be any child.

10 points by vpdn 14y ago

rada 14y ago

The idea is outstanding. Thank you for making this. One nitpick. It is confusing that all your options are named "disable" and "allow" but your instructions say "if you set this control, it will disable...". So the control is "set" when it says "disabled"? It is also against convention in the sense that your options are negative-positive (disable-allow) when the convention is positive-negative (yes-no, set-unset, block-unblock, etc). Personally, I would change the controls to "block" and "unblock", and the instructions to something like "set this to block to disable and hide... ". In the very least, I would change them to "enable" and "disable", in that order. Edit: just wanted to add that after completing the whole sign-up, I found your overall style clear, concise and organic. You did get a lot of things "just right". Great job.

vpdn 14y ago
good points, thanks for the feedback! I'll look into how I can reword the text to make it clearer.
- rada 14y ago
  One more suggestion, in case you don't know, there is this HN parents mailing list: groups.google.com/group/hn-parents I vaguely recall there being a discussion on it a while ago about this.
  - vpdn 14y ago
    Didn't know about the group, thanks for the pointer. Seems like the group is invite only (my signup is pending for approval). If you have a minute, would be great if you could help me post the link there, otherwise I'll wait for the approval and do it later.
    - rada 14y ago
      How about I test it out on my iPhone (left it at home today) and post a recommendation to the group tomorrow?
      - vpdn 14y ago
        That would be awesome of course, thanks!
      - deleted 14y ago
        [deleted]
- rada 14y ago
  One more nitpick. During installation, I noticed the use of two app names, "ParentControl" for the app itself, and "Parental Control" otherwise. Could become a problem from SEO standpoint. And one last nitpick/question. It looks like the app requires a connection? Was it simply easier to develop, or did you want to simplify the sign up process by tying users' settings to their email? It would obviously be much better if this worked in Airplane mode. However, it's not a dealbreaker, and the unusually low friction of getting set up may be worth it (in fact, if that were the goal, I think it's kinda genius).

bruceboughton 14y ago

How does this work? Is there a public API for these settings or does it require jailbreaking/sideloading?

rada 14y ago
Just loaded it on my office iPad, no jailbreak. I believe it loads a standard iOS configuration profile via a home screen link.
0m1cr0n 14y ago
The site generates a .mobileconfig file, which is an Apple plist file in XML format. The API is public, and easily reverse-engineered from other .mobileconfig files. The "app" that gets installed is actually a webclip, not a native iOS application. They embedded the icon as a base64 string inside the .mobileconfig. The webclip opens mobile Safari in fullscreen, with a link in the format of "http://mocava.de/ios/parental-control/profiles/UNIQUE_ID/parentalControl-active.html http://mocava.de/ios/parental-control/profiles/UNIQUE_ID/par..., where UNIQUE_ID ties back to the choices you made on the setup screen of their website. This will allow Mocava to track usage stats, which seems like a fair trade-off for a free service. You could roll your own version of this using Apple's Configurator application, however Mocava has done a decent job of streamlining the setup and installation.
- bruceboughton 14y ago
  Thanks for the explanation. I'd forgotten about mobileconfig.
- vpdn 14y ago
  "Mocava has done a decent job of streamlining the setup and installation." Thanks :) Usability wise, the hardest part was to explain that you have to install a profile to deactivate an existing profile. Also people associated the word "profile" with a facebook profile and thought it contains their personal data like name & address. To prevent confusion, the page I removed (almost) all instances of the word profile from the page.

hackmiester 14y ago

Why say "Toddler" ? Could be any child.