Fields of application for QR codes Discover the possibilities

Get in contact: from analog to digital contact – and back again

It is a familiar problem: you meet a business partner and would like to exchange contact details so that you can network effectively in the future – ideally in digital form.

Some time ago, Poken were popular for this purpose – small, often animal-shaped devices that exchange their stored information when held against each other and then transfer it to a computer via a USB connection. In a business context, business cards are more common. A printed QR code saves tedious typing.

But the technology can also be used for directions if a QR code next to a map directly links to a Google map with the correct address. There are also attempts to combine QR codes with GPS navigation.

Enhanced user experience

Print media may be easy to hold, but they have the significant disadvantage of not being particularly link-friendly. The German “Spiegel” shows how a solution might look: small QR codes have been emblazoned next to articles for some time now, linking to the corresponding online version.

Other publications, such as the Mac magazine “Mac & I”, rely on webcodes, random sequences of numbers that you can type into a corresponding input field on the website. The question of which method is better can only be answered with regard to the specific audience: webcodes require additional typing, which can be avoided by using a QR code; on the other hand, they do not require any special software on the cell phone. So the question is whether your audience is tech-savvy enough to own or be able to get such software – and, of course, whether your readers even have smartphones. So I am not so sure that “Spiegel” really made the right decision.

QR codes in education

In his article “QR codes in media education”, Tobias Albers-Heinemann describes using QR codes in outdoor activities such as a scavenger hunt to convey GPS coordinates or addresses. There is Scanvenger, a simple tool for creating QR-based scavenger hunts, and projects like the “QR Game” by Mediale Pfade implement such projects in practice.

An alternative is to use QR codes as a way of linking real objects to the internet. This enables the viewer to obtain further information about a place if desired – of course, this is only useful if corresponding information signs cannot be attached. This is something that QRpedia, for example, does. Museums place QR codes next to their exhibits, which redirect visitors who are keen to scan to the corresponding mobile version of Wikipedia. However, the codes are also used outside of museums.

I find QR codes in museums a bit strange – why should museums stick QR codes in their exhibitions when they could use explanatory labels that have significantly fewer access requirements? One reason could be the curiosity factor – according to this view, QR codes are considered new and exciting enough to appeal to people who would not read the texts on the signs. Opinions on this differ: while the anonymous authors of the recommendable article “The Psychology of QR Codes” believe that the codes still attract attention, Jürgen Siebert writes that they have long since lost the “allure of the new”. Ultimately, it is only possible to decide whether QR codes still have sufficient novelty value with regard to one’s own audience – and one should think of an alternative for the time after that.

But of course there are other reasons to put the black and white box structures in a museum – namely when they are an integral part of what is being exhibited.

beyond art: Art in the Interstice

QR codes in museums that link the physical reality with the reality on the internet – no wonder that this idea inspires artists from all over the world. René Walter of Nerdcore discovered one of the most exciting projects in this direction: “Night of the Living Dead Pixels”. With this, Étienne Mineur created a reference to the famous zombie classic that made it into the exhibition “Talk to Me” at MoMA. The story can be varied using the flexible folding and the QR codes.

So it is creativity that plays a crucial role in determining whether QR codes can be used sensibly and profitably. In the last episode of my QR code series, I will therefore look at specific projects that have sought creative solutions with the pixel patterns – sometimes more and sometimes less successfully.