Thursday, January 30, 2020

What happened to QR codes?

What happened to the QR code? It seems like the next "it" thing that never came to see its full potential. When QR codes came onto the scene, it appeared to the perfect marketing vehicle. It's small, it can be scanned whenever, wherever and no one needs to buy any special equipment to access it. So why didn't it take off like a rocket? You still see some of them around, but for the most part, QR codes are not a omnipresent as you think they should be. Maybe it's because they are a little, well, unsightly. These black and white squares that look neither elegant or modern, QR codes look dated. Maybe it's because short urls were competing in the same space. They are short (obviously), easy to remember and can be incorporated into copy easily. Or maybe it's because it took the user out of the experience they had entered into. One of the key goals on a website is to keep the user engagement in the page they are in. You never want to take the user out of that and risk abandonment altogether. So, maybe the QR was doing just that.

Whatever the reason, why we don't see more QR codes in marketing and advertising will always be a bit of a mystery to me.

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