QRCodesDoneRight.com - let's teach people how to use QR codes right | Hacker News Reader

QRCodesDoneRight.com - let's teach people how to use QR codes right

qrcodesdoneright.com

20 pointsdusker24 comments

After reading a number of QR-code-fail blogs we decided to put together a super simple and super condensed guide on how to use QR codes right.

Open articleView on HN

> Some places are better than others for placing QR codes. Bearing in mind it takes a while to scan, rather than putting a code in that busy passage way why not put in on the subway train where everybody is rather bored and is playing with their phones anyways.

Because there is no reception underground. (Yes, this is changing, depending on the city. e.g. in London there is now free wifi at some stations, but not between stations.)

Also, some people, when a stranger takes a photo of the ad above their head, will mistakenly believe the stranger is taking a photo of them, and treat it as threatening behaviour.

There is a typo in your <title>: "aobut" should be "about".

Tangential but: one thing that amazed me when I moved to Stockholm is that the entire underground is wired for 3G/HSDPA. You don't realize it at first until it suddenly occurs to you that you're surfing on the subway.

One of the wireless companies here (Telia) used to be nationalized, so I suspect that has something to do with it.

Thanks for spotting the typo - fixed!

I still see a lot of scenarios/places where QR codes would work if used correctly.

Another one..

alrady (do you mean already?), also check out this artistic QR Code (view full size):

http://www.blogger.com/profile/14761943015995502265

Hey I like it! I thought a while ago about mashing up 8bit gfx and qr codes

I prefer this as my QR code reference: http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/

And yet the QR code on the front page has an embedded logo, which isn't at all part of the spec, I think. Kind of ironic. I know brands love those designer QR codes (or at least loathe them less) but they have a significant impact on scan-ability, even if many decoders are good enough to scan them, they might take longer, especially on non-top-of-the-line phones. The point of a QR code is to make that information easier to get at, and the designer codes are at odds with this. (disclaimer, I worked at a barcode startup for a bit, and I left partly because I don't buy QR codes)

Embedding logo is not a part of the spec, but demonstration that QR codes can be customized. In my experience (and i also have been involved in QR code related startup) these don't take longer to process as long as you don't go over the certain point with customizing the code. It's all about finding the right balance.

Error correction is part of the spec (along with a reference algorithm for decoding a real-world image), so by keeping enough margin in the right places it's possible to embed a logo safely.

Licencing - you've misspelled 'patented' Readability - "its", not "it's"

There's a bunch of other grammar/style issues - get someone to proofread it.

Fixed! Thanks!

>Would you do it? Always try to stand in a shoes of a regular person and ask yourself would I scan it? Does this convince me to take out my phone and spend 10 seconds of my time to scan that QR code? Is it attractive enough?

When the answer to this question is a 'No I would not', I fail to see the utility of these things.

  > I fail to see the utility of these things.

Then I suggest that you are lacking in imagination. I scan QR codes quite often and find them quite useful. Not every day, and not outstandingly useful, but useful enough that I know of no suitable alternative, and I would miss the utility they provide.

I've commented on this at length elsewhere, and will not do so again here. I doubt that you will change your mind, but I can provide references to my comments for those who are interested.

The question isn't "is there utility" but "is there sufficiently more utility than alternatives to justify their use". I don't think I've come across a situation where the answer to that is yes. The barriers are high.

Most people a) don't have a reader b) don't really know what they are. Compare this to something like a URL/domain which people do recognise the format of, or a discount code ("use SUBWAY10 for 10% off!") to achieve the same goals.

Seriously, I would love to hear of any use cases where a QR Code was the absolute best approach.

How about that Tesco campaign in South Korea?

I've gone over all this several times before. It's great to have a facility to visit a website (or other text) that doesn't involve having to type in either a long piece of text, or a shortened piece of text that's some random mix of unusual characters. It takes me less than 20 seconds, including time taken to get the phone from my pocket, to scan a code. I've gone to stage shows, theatre productions and visited companies for special offers, none of which I would have done had they not had the QR code.

There is no other current alternative that I know. Please, name some alternatives that I could use, straight away, without downloading anything (and no, I didn't have to download my QR reader, it came with the phone), without configuring anything, and that is as error resistant as QR codes.

Even if I do have to download something, tell me what reasonable alternatives exist when I'm standing on a train using one hand to hold on.

I'm not particularly a QR advocate, but for me, they are useful, and I'm getting tired of people telling me they aren't, and that they should go away. I'm especially tired of people removing from me things that work, and replacing them either with things that don't, or with nothing.

What would be wrong with OCR plus a marker or two to indicate a scannable area (and maybe content type) - human readable, phone scannable.

My biggest issue with QR codes is there is no indication of what they are before scanning. That, and I dislike most forms of advertising.

  > What would be wrong with OCR plus a marker or two
  > to indicate a scannable area

Simple:

* There is no OCR that is currently sufficiently reliable

* It has no error correction ability, so is not robust against damage

* There are currently no apps I know that can perform this function

So go to it, create an app that works on all known phones and is robust against up to 30% damage, and you may have something with which to penetrate the market.

  > My biggest issue with QR codes is there is no indication
  > of what they are before scanning.

My phone tells me what it is and asks permission to open it, and the context usually tells me what it should be. I don't bother with context-less QR codes. Beside, this is not a problem with the code, it's a problem with the brain-dead manner in which some people use them.

  > That, and I dislike most forms of advertising.

I scan codes for shows, films, and shops. I know what I'm getting, and it's simple, clear, and my choice. I don't like advertising either, but sometimes I see notices of things I want to use, see, or get involved with.

Example 1. We are about to send out a large shipment of equipment. Each machine will be outfitted with a QR code. When scanned, the QR code will link to an individual machine page so you can monitor test continuity in real time e.g. Rolls Royce testing the durability of a new tire or Medtronic testing the performance of a small titanium screw intended for use in the body. These tests need to run continually for very long periods of time. They are very expensive to restart. The number of machines is overwhelming to enter individual URLs by hand.

What would be a better approach?

Example 2. Whenever I shop for electronics, I always take advantage of QR codes to read specs and reviews. My local OfficeMax has the codes on almost all price tags, usually linking them to both the manufacturer's page and Amazon reviews.

What would be a better approach?

At the Rosenbrg Castle in Copenhagen, they use QR Codes to provide information about rooms, items of interest etc. Alas, the free wifi is quickly overwhelmed so I gave up fairly quickly - but I tried, for the first time in a long time.

And I still see companies placing QR codes on billboards on the highway!

Yeah me too! That's why we did QRCodesDoneRight.com and hope that at least ONE person will learn from this :)

How many people that aren't in the tech scene actually know a simple way to scan a QR code?

There's a number of apps, for virtually any platform out there. I'm pretty sure that apart from tech scene QR codes are fairly recognizable.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com