Biggest QR Code Mistakes

Actually this one works... well, most of the time.

It happens over and over again. Companies hire designers to help them jump on the QR code bandwagon, but instead wind up being thrown under the bus.

QR codes, when used properly, are a great way to get mobile users to interact with you, your company and your website. When done wrong, they just become an embarrassment, waste of your money, and waste of the potential visitor’s time. Personally, I would never trust a web site that cannot implement a QR code properly. Something so easy, if done wrong, throws customer confidence out the window. If they can’t get a simple QR code right, what else can’t they do right? Ship my order?

Here are some of the most obvious, and sadly, most common mistakes being made every day.

QR code pointing to a non-mobile page

This is the probably the most common mistake, and one which leaves me baffled as to why it happens so often. If you consider that QR codes are designed to be scanned by mobile devices and only mobile devices, why in the world would you even consider sending someone to a non-mobile web page?

Over zealous use of graphics and colour

Ever see a UPC product code, say on a toothpaste tube, that had wild graphics and multiple colours? Of course not. The cash register could never “read” it. So why do designers think they can jazz up a QR code with colours and graphics? Well, because they can, but only to a point. It takes in depth knowledge of how QR codes are encoded, what the error tolerances are and how the scanning programs work in order to successfully add a graphic to a QR code. It also takes an awful lot of testing with an awful lot of mobile devices.

As for colour, there is one simple explanation for why they are almost always black and white. Contrast. Scanners in mobile devices, especially older ones, rely on having high contrast QR codes in order to properly “see” them. Other colour combinations are possible, but be careful and make sure to test them thoroughly. A lot of older phones will first convert the QR code to black and white before trying to decode it so if the colour combination does not translate well to black and white, the device will not read it correctly.

Just ask your designer “what are the error tolerance and contrast levels for this proposed code you are designing”. If they don’t have an immediate answer (without searching google), just say NO.

Too much information

While it is theoretically possible to store over 4000 characters in a single QR code, there are not a lot of devices out there that can read them.

A QR code is a “hook” for a potential customer, that’s all. Give them the minimum they need to get in touch with you (name, telephone, email) or view a web page (a link, as short as possible) or other information.

The Moral of The Story

A QR code is not a design element, it is a piece of data. Designers can tweak it a little here and there, but only if they have studied QR codes in depth and test their creations fully. It only takes a few seconds to generate a QR code and slap it on a page. Don’t be fooled.