Both DataMatrix and QR codes have similar performance in all manners in my limited testing. Are there any clear advantages to one over the other, or am I bikeshedding myself?
I’ve tried a few different rolls from Amazon and the stuff gets stuck on objects and won’t peel off. Is there a supplier that sells the kind of label rolls that will peel off without sticking? What are the terms I should be using to describe this kind of paper? I feel like I’m fumbling around with my language describing this problem.
IIRC though, DataMatrix is technically licensed, not open, so if that's a concern for you you may want to be careful.
(Or not conflicting the UX with existing purposes of QR on whatever you're inventorying, such as manufacturer/brand's consumer engagement on packaging or the products themselves. "No, not that QR, a different one, somewhere else.")
An example with QR Code, I made "prefilled" email templates using the mailto: protocol, so let's say you want to report an issue regarding a specific piece of hardware in the office, you can scan the Tech Support QR code and it will prefill the email to send to our tech support email with all its information (hostname, serial number, model, location, etc) and then the client can fill up a small description of the problem before sending. I only do this for hardware that doesn't leave the premises, on laptops I just put a CODE-128 barcode that contains the hostname (also written in plaintext) below the display, and another one on the lid to make the process of taking an inventory quickly when someone is working at their desktop using a docking station with the lid closed.
It saves us some back and forth with our users.
It's a bit of work, but once you have your template it's fairly easy to automate the generation.