QR, aka “Quick Response”, codes were designed by the motor vehicle industry and somehow filtered their way into the digital world. But instead of making our lives easier, they have failed to take off.
My reasons for being unimpressed:
- With a few small exceptions, businesses continue to predominantly use them in mundane, unimaginative ways that don’t provide value.
- … therefore we were always disappointed by what they led to. And we’ve learnt from this.
- They never filled a need in the market. Some argued they were good for long URLs… and then they found bit.ly.
- They actually are a pain in the ass to use. Get the phone out, line it up right, take the photo, locate the right app, put it in… yea, we could have typed the URL by then.
- They are ugly. Even in pink.
And probably the biggest reason of all:
- Neither Apple or Android have built them into their devices.
