The pandemic has without question popularised the QR code. What was hailed when it first appeared as a game changing opportunity to integrate print with the digital world never quite delivered on that promise. The codes appeared here and there, in magazines, on posters, on packaging as a means of finding our more information or for promotions. But, as has been said of many promising pop acts, the QR code never quite made the big time.
Lockdown has changed all that. Everybody now understands what a QR code is and what it can do when scanned. The QR code, first developed to help track components around a factory in Japan, had found its raison d’être in this country. It has taught we consumers that snapping a code with our phone can deliver time saving connectivity. We don’t have to try to type URLs on a smartphone’s cramped keyboard, we don’t have to try to make a search engine work to get to a page to report our whereabouts to help the Covid effort. Quite simply, we get that something printed can deliver something digital.
But even as the QR code makes its breakthrough, the code itself is passé. It is too cumbersome to be used in a magazine or catalogue, too obvious to be useful for a graphic designer. Now that we understand that print can work together with digital, the opportunity is there for all manner of implementations of similar applications, without needing to remember which app works with which logo to indicate that an image is active in this way, as has too frequently been the case. Smartphone technology, progressive web pages, and simpler implementations are arriving at the same time that we consumers have been primed by the QR code to make the connection. The QR code itself may be almost obsolete, but it should be celebrated as forging that link and helping to make sure print remains relevant in a digital age.
In praise of the QR code
The pandemic has without question popularised the QR code. What was hailed when it first appeared as a game changing opportunity to integrate print with the digital world never quite delivered on that promise. The codes appeared here and there, in magazines, on posters, on packaging as a means of finding our more information or for promotions. But, as has been said of many promising pop acts, the QR code never quite made the big time.
Lockdown has changed all that. Everybody now understands what a QR code is and what it can do when scanned. The QR code, first developed to help track components around a factory in Japan, had found its raison d’être in this country. It has taught we consumers that snapping a code with our phone can deliver time saving connectivity. We don’t have to try to type URLs on a smartphone’s cramped keyboard, we don’t have to try to make a search engine work to get to a page to report our whereabouts to help the Covid effort. Quite simply, we get that something printed can deliver something digital.
But even as the QR code makes its breakthrough, the code itself is passé. It is too cumbersome to be used in a magazine or catalogue, too obvious to be useful for a graphic designer. Now that we understand that print can work together with digital, the opportunity is there for all manner of implementations of similar applications, without needing to remember which app works with which logo to indicate that an image is active in this way, as has too frequently been the case. Smartphone technology, progressive web pages, and simpler implementations are arriving at the same time that we consumers have been primed by the QR code to make the connection. The QR code itself may be almost obsolete, but it should be celebrated as forging that link and helping to make sure print remains relevant in a digital age.
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