01
Made here
Denny’s Maze
I built the product I wanted first: a quiet maze-book experience with no ads, no timers, and no flashing reward loops. It is the app I can confidently give to my own child.
Independent app lab · built by a mom
Apps you’re not scared to hand to your kids.
Harmless Apps finds and builds low-stimulation, educational digital products that respect a child’s attention—and a parent’s trust.
01 / Mission
Finding the good ones shouldn’t be this hard.
The App Store is full of products labeled educational. That does not tell you whether an app is noisy, manipulative, shallow, impossible to use offline, or genuinely useful for a young child.
I test those things directly, using the same question I ask as a parent: would I feel comfortable giving this to my own child?
02 / Start here
Three ways into the work.
02
Independent testing
Low-stimulation ratings
Compare visual motion, audio intensity, reward loops, interruptions, child agency, and learning value across popular kids apps.
See the comparison03
Travel-tested
Offline app ratings
See what actually works after Wi-Fi disappears, what needs setup, and what gives a child enough to do on a real trip.
See the offline tests03 / The standard
Educational is more than a label.
Skill demand
What does the child actually have to think about or do?
Agency
Does the child make meaningful choices, or mostly follow prompts?
Depth
Does the experience develop, or repeat the same shallow interaction?
Transfer
Could the learning matter beyond this one app?
Why this exists
I wanted better apps for my own child.
I spent 13 years building apps designed to hold attention. After becoming a mom, I wanted to use those skills differently. Denny’s Maze came first. Then I started testing the rest of the market—with the same standards I use for my own product and my own child.
Read my story