People in the UK seem to be getting more and more excited about QR codes. When I say ‘people’ I really mean ‘companies and brands’, I’m convinced that for ‘people’ the use of QR codes at present is either baffling, goes unnoticed or is mildly irritating.
If you do want to mess around with QR codes a really (REALLY) easy way to generate them for specific urls can be found by simply following this url: http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=200×200&cht=qr&chl=XXXX where I’ve put the XXXX you simply need to type the url you want to create a QR code for.
Anyway, back to why I’m unconvinced by the way QR codes are currently used.
History
To start, here is a brief (probably inaccurate) history of the QR code, they were first used widely in Japan in the early 90’s where I’m lead to believe that they are now fairly ubiquitous and widely used in campaigns, they spread to South Korea and (apparently) the only inroads they’ve made into Europe has been in the Netherlands. QR (Quick Response) codes are basically a form of barcode, capable of representing up to 4,000(ish) alphanumeric characters or about 3,000(ish) bytes of binary data. Typically the information represented will be a specific URL or small pieces of information – a message or similar.
Apparently they were first used to track parts in vehicle manufacture (thanks Wikipedia!).
When done well, they work
When they’re used creatively they can be an interesting and engaging way to connect physical materials with a digital facet of a campaign, e.g. http://mashable.com/2011/07/23/creative-qr-codes/ but more often than not they are simply plonked on a brochure or leaflet instead of an explicit url. When used in this way I can see absolutely no reason for using QR codes instead of a url. QR codes are not human-readable, urls are.
Seb Chan demonstrated a number of properly integrated ways of using QR codes in his keynote at the AMA Conference last week, specifically use in exhibitions as a way to access more, related content to extend the museum experience. He showed that when the displaying of QR codes is considered as a part of the exhibition design then the codes can fit in without looking like weird, ugly stickers. He also emphasised that they did have to explicitly say how to engage with the codes.
When done badly, they suck…a lot
However, the application of QR codes in this sort of careful, considered and integrated way is rare (in my experience). Too often you see a code incongruously placed at the bottom of an advert or on a billboard with absolutely no explanation as to how to use the code or what it’s going to show you. Although this technology is commonplace in some parts of the world in the UK most people have absolutely no idea what they are or how to use them. They aren’t going to automatically understand that they need to scan the code and they will then be shown something relevant or interesting on the device they’ve scanned the code with, in fact most of them probably don’t even know that they can scan the codes with their phone.
And that brings me onto another point, phones. The vast, vast majority of people who do scan your QR codes will do so via a mobile device (i.e. their phone), have you considered that when designing where the code will take them or what it’ll show them? Are you trying to take them to a the url of a page that hasn’t been designed with mobiles in mind or are you trying to show them some content that just isn’t suitable to be delivered to a phone?
Be careful and considerate and it might just work
However, although as ever I’m sure I sound slightly grumpy about the whole thing, I do think that QR codes can be useful. If you consider how and where you’re going to display them, how you are going to encourage people to engage with them (and explain what they are) and carefully consider how and why you’re using QR codes to connect the audience with a specific part of your digital activity then I think that they are probably the best tool for the job.
Where can I see them being used effectively? Programmes/brochures/exhibitions – any situation when you can sensibly enhance the users experience by connecting them to the digital world – if it isn’t going to benefit the user then don’t do it, if it’s just going to link them from an advert to yet more advertising then forget it, you’re not doing anyone any favours.
Tips
If you want your QR code to be as readable as possible for a specific url then use a url shortener (e.g. bit.ly or tinyurl.com) as this will result less characters to represent which equals bigger ‘blocks’ in the code which means that whatever reader you’re using will ‘lock’ to the code more quickly. Also in print the code needs to be a certain size to be readable, below about 15mmx15mm some readers have trouble ‘locking on’ to a code, on posters the code needs to be much larger than this (hopefully this is obvious!). I’d recommend you test, test and test again.
Think about where you’re sending them (I can’t stress this enough) – e.g. if you’re sending the user to a video, is it accessible to devices that don’t support Flash, is it HD video – if so then most people probably won’t thank you for using their entire month’s worth of data allowance. If you’re sending them to a site then how does this look/work on a mobile device? What’s the user experience like?
Also, last but by no means least – think about when people will be seeing the QR code. On the tube? Yeah, they will have no signal then. On a plane? Yep, no phones will be turned on there either.
As always it’d be great to hear your thoughts, do you love/hate QR codes, have you seen any amazing/awful examples of their use? I’m really interested in how people respond to them, the vast majority of my (fairly tech-literate) friends either hate them or don’t understand them.