Friday, July 22, 2011

QR Codes Are Ugly

QR Code, anyone?  Music?

qrcode

I don't love QR (Quick Response) codes much.  I appreciate how they can be useful:
  • Nothing like scanning a produce item in the grocery store to find the back-story on just how organic it is and perhaps even "following it" on fb as it is juiced by another customer later that day
  • Being in an airport and scanning a code while on the move to learn of a nearby deal, value or offer.  Then becoming excited that they QR code enticed me to purchase a Brookstone travel pillow as a result ---that I will never use again
  • Standing in line for a lunch, becoming bored of staring at my mobile phone, and then looking up to see a QR code, and then becoming suddenly un-bored of my phone again as I scan the code to find out the salad bar has its own community that I should become a fan off.
But even if they could provide consistently useful information at the point in time and place that it is needed, I can't get past that we're just bar-coding life's experiences with something ugly.

2 comments:

  1. While some barcodes can be rather clever!

    http://mashable.com/2011/06/26/creative-bar-codes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Fdev-design+%28Mashable+%C2%BB+Development+and+Design%29

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah yes, cuteness reigns strong.

    ReplyDelete