Getting Creative with QR Barcodes; Funny Little Graphics That Contain a Lot of Information

See that funny little black and white graphic up there next to my logo? That’s called a QR code. These mobile barcodes are big in Japan and slowly catching on in the west. If you’re not familiar with them yet, they’re the equivalent of the more common line barcodes, but they can be used for a lot more than just identifying products on packaging. For example, if you shoot that QR code next to my logo with your mobile phone’s bar code reader it will give you the link to this blog. A handy way to add my blog url on your mobile phone without having to type it in.

You can get a barcode/QR reader for just about any phone with a camera and there are several apps available for iPhones and Android devices.

Many websites are using QR codes to give direct access to software or apps to download. They can be used to deliver short text messages too, so you could add one to your business card or even store the image on your phone and someone at a convention would simply scan the image on your mobile phone and instantly have all the information you’d normally provide on your business card, including a clickable link to your website. How about having one printed on a t-shirt that provides a link to your Twitter account with the words, “Follow me on Twitter”. Just think how much attention you ladies will draw at a tweetup when everyone is taking pictures of your chest.

Check out my Twitter page and you’ll see that I’ve added one to my background that when scanned displays the message, “Please visit my blog at http://hughbriss.com” and the link is clickable.

If you’d like to create a custom QR code for yourself there are several websites that offer the service. Two that I like are Qurify and Kawa.

The few ideas I’ve mentioned in this post are just the tip of the iceberg and I can’t wait to see just what creative uses QR codes will be put to. Please show us examples of uses you’ve come across in the comments.