Lots of creative ideas and thoughts about QR codes, especially this one.  But an important question remains: how often are they used?  Or, are they ever used?

I have never, *ever* observed a person scanning a QR code in the wild, despite the codes being quite common.  And this is in a world where you don't need to go walking for more than 10 seconds to encounter someone using their smartphone.  But not to scan QR codes.  Just an observation.

Kris


http://www.kristoferlayon.com
http://twitter.com/klayon


On Apr 3, 2012, at 1:38 PM, Peter Riemenschneider wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 12:46 PM, Aaron Zirbes <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Dan,
>> Yep, almost all QR codes these days are encoded URLs.
>> --
>> Aaron
> 
> 
> Almost - but we're doing something a little different with ours.
> 
> The College of Science and Engineering produced a series of posters
> that promoted our majors, with the idea that faculty would staff
> booths and discuss their departments and majors with students.
> 
> The idea of QR codes came up, but like it has been mentioned here, I
> thought it was odd to produce a code that just contained a ULR when a
> vanity URL would be easier to produce and remember. So instead, I set
> up the QR code to contain contact information for the department/major
> being visited as an encoded Vcard. I included department name, email,
> web and mailing address, so if the visitors wanted a take-away, they
> could scan the code and put the department info in their phone for
> later reference.
> 
> Size of the QR graphic was important - I tested our using my
> first-generation iPhone, which has a (relatively) poor quality camera.
> Given that students might be several feet away from the poster, with
> potentially no ability to zoom, the image needed to be large (8"
> sounds about right) and sufficient white space needed to be around the
> image so as to not confuse the camera.
> 
> On a related note, we're currently looking into using digital
> signage/displays for our new building and I've been exploring best
> practices for content and presentation. I've seen some digital signs
> that use QR codes and it always makes laugh. Because the majority of
> displays around campus are mounted at least 7-9 feet high, the size of
> the code graphic isn't large enough to make phone capture even
> possible. And usually in those cases, they are acting as a Web link,
> so a vanity URL would have been a better way to go.
> 
> I think there are more useful ways to use QR codes than URLs. For
> example, I recently put a QR code on my personal business card. It
> contains my Vcard info, so contacts can scan it to capture my contact
> info (provided they have the right reader)
> 
> Pete
> 
> -- 
> Peter Riemenschneider
> Electronic Communications Manager
> College of Science and Engineering
> University of Minnesota
> Phone: 612-624-2929
> [log in to unmask]
> 
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