A year ago at Expo West I scanned about 20 QR Codes to see how they worked and to see how companies were using the technology.
The results were disappointing. Not a single QR Code hit on all aspects of user-friendly usability. They fell into one of the follow categories: didn’t work at all (1); didn’t scan at all because they were too small, too far away (too high) or looked weird because they were on an uneven surface (temporary tattoos) (about 15 of them); or the URL landing page wasn’t optimized for a smart phone (the remainder).
This year at Expo West I wasn’t as scan-happy, but I did find that many more QR Codes did work, and did exactly what they intended. Not all, but many. Out of about a dozen
codes I scanned, all of them worked (they took me to a landing page), and about half of the landing pages were optimized for viewing in a smart phone.
Some notable examples: Gud, from Burt’s Bees and Ciao Bello (see screen shots). Both had nice looking landing pages, which were easy to navigate, and very inviting. Both accomplished their purposes of providing a good answer to the question: why should I scan this QR Code.
Check out the Kindle version of my QR Code Tradeshow Marketing Guide here (cheap!) if you want to know how to make these puppies work right.
