About Quick Pads
Quick Pads measures how fast you can make a simple choice. Four large pads fill the lower part of the screen: a red triangle, a yellow circle, a teal square and a cream diamond. Above them, one of those shapes appears. Tap its pad.
How it works
A bar under the target shows how long you have. At the start it is a little over two seconds. With every correct answer the allowance shrinks, down to about three quarters of a second.
A correct tap scores a point and brings up the next shape straight away. The same shape never appears twice in a row. A wrong tap costs a life, and so does letting the bar run out.
Just as you get used to where everything is, the game moves it. After every fifth point the pads are shuffled into new positions.
Playing it well
Match by position, not by searching. For the first few answers, make a point of noticing where each shape lives. After that your hand should know where to go as soon as you see the target.
Notice the shuffle. When your score reaches a multiple of five, expect the layout to change, and take half a second to look at the new arrangement before answering.
Use two hands on a phone, one thumb for each column. It halves the distance.
Colour is quicker than shape for most people, but the two always go together here, so use whichever your eye picks up first.
Do not guess when you are rushed. A wrong tap and a timeout cost the same, so there is nothing to gain from stabbing at a pad you are unsure of. Take the extra instant.
Thirty points is quick thinking. It is a good example of how choice-reaction HTML5 games differ from plain reflex tests.