Mobile code scanning

In Japan the QR code scan is a popular way for different brand to catch attention or to send more information to the costumers. This small picture can contain simple information to let costumers learn more about your products. The way it works is to download one of the QR code decoders, installing it onto your mobile phone with and camera and start the program to scan the code. Once it has scanned it, it will automatically change it to the correct information. It could be a link to a website or a file that you can download from the internet, for example a video or a music fragment. Or it could be a short text message (with maximum 250 characters) about something. A phone number that you can call to for additional information or a SMS for that will send a certain message to a certain phone number. Click this link to read the rest of this post...

I've got my QR decoder from Quickmark which have allot of decoders for different phones.

This is quite a great technology because you don't have to type in the url to go to that website or a file, you just only have to scan it. And the scanned picture can be saved onto your mobile phone to visit the website again. You can place these on everything you want actually, for any promotional activity. You can ad it to a flyer for a album release so people could get sountrack sample. Poster for a movie that leads to a movie trailer. A t-shirt for people to scan out of curiosity. On packaging for additional information about the product.

You also can make your own QR code with special online generations like Kaywa QR code.


However QR code tends to look dull cause of the simple black white dots. Here is a video of a Dutch version of the QR code that uses different colours to fit the info instead of black and white dots. And can contain a higher amount of data.


However the coloured dots doesn't really appear to be really that graphical. But lucky there are now designs on their way like logo Q code which ad graphical elements to it. Watch the video to learn more about it.


But the future is that you can actually access more data than just the data on the code. How ever these codes actually already exist for serveral year but haven't really reached the user over the whole world. And only been stuck as a trend in Japan.

Here is a video of the Shotcode which actually uses a server to access the information instead of putting all the information in a single picture. However this method isn't free because the information is stored on a server and not in the code.


Conclusion
Conclusion is that we as designers should start using more of these kind of data codes on our designs. Cause the most of the technology are free to use and is a great way to get costumers to access more information easily without having to push too much buttons. Cause it seem the rest of the world is lacking behind with this trend while Japan flies forward with it.

Here are a few ideas that could be possible with the use with the normal QR code.

Voting QR codes
On the television their are many shows like Idols where you can vote for a candidate. However sometime they speak the phonenumber too fast or you don't know how to type the name of the candidate correct cause they have a hard name. Why not show a QR code on the television that makes it possible for people to scan and send a SMS with the correct name to the correct number. It's also less buttons you have to push to send that SMS.

QR code prepaid cards
For those who often want to add money to their prepaid phone often need to type a large digit and also phone a special number. Why not make it possible instead of calling to add money a special SMS that you only have to scan with the QR code.

Credits to:
Branding Unbound for the Qr picture
Dig Info News for the video about the logo Q code
Entumovil for the video of the Shotcode
Fresh Creation.nl for the video of the Coloured Barcode

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