yet another design mistake (qr)

This commit is contained in:
Wouter Groeneveld 2022-03-10 15:48:40 +01:00
parent a7416c0742
commit 21c11bfc49
5 changed files with 36 additions and 0 deletions

View File

@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Apple's App Store Design Mistake
date: 2021-07-01T09:19:00
categories:
- software
tags:
- design
---
Apple is usually known for their witty and minimalist design choices. Almost every single product that Apple puts out is much revered, from the original iPod to the [newest MacBook Air](/post/2020/12/developing-on-apple-m1-silicon/), including the packaging design. At least, until Big Sur, which with its [inconsistent interface elements](https://rubenerd.com/testing-from-big-sur/) is in dire need of redesigning---again. I'm also not a big fan of the big borders and spaciness in the title bars, but I guess we'll have to make do.

View File

@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Parking Machines Design Mistakes
date: 2021-09-15T13:18:00+02:00
categories:
- software
tags:
- design
---
Time for another [design mistake](/post/2021/07/apples-app-store-design-mistake/)! We spent a week at the seaside but were reluctant to cross country borders due to "these times". Not having to fumble in rusty French does make things a little bit better. Not having to install anything special on our smartphones to park too, since it was still in Flanders, and all these parking machines operate the same way.

View File

@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
---
title: An Ad Leaflet QR Design Mistake
date: 2022-03-10T14:23:00+01:00
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- design
---
Time for another [design mistake](/tags/design). An upcoming trend: QR codes in physical ad leaflets delivered by mail, devoid of other contextual information. After all, one has to keep up with the latest and greatest. Consider the following partial ad of a local Mac store (in Dutch):
![](../qr.jpg "Aha, a QR code! What do I do?")
The Blue text balloon _'Ontek ze allemaal op onze website...'_ (Discover them all on our website... ) points to a QR code you can scan with your smartphone. Which website? The domain name is effectively encoded---thus, hidden---within the QR rectangle. Note the ample white space. Were the advertisers scared that `lab9.be` (7 characters!) somehow wouldn't fit?
What if I want to use my laptop/computer to look at their online store? That doesn't have a QR scan "app".
What if---_gasp_---I don't have a smartphone? Surely you must be joking Wouter, this is a tech ad aimed at techies with money! That might be true, but I've seen the same thing appear in social union party leaflets, in articles on social health and well-being targeted at anyone. Well, at least apparently targeted at anyone capable of deciphering a weird rectangle with lots of small black dots.
What if I'm just too lazy to open up the QR scan app and just want to write down the URL?
[Please, I Am Begging You, No More QR Codes](https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2021/12/03/no-more-qr-codes/). They're not only invading restaurants (at first to promote contact-less ordering, now just to be cool), they're also a great way to fool inattentive users:
> Meanwhile, the increased proliferation of these horrible little boxes is an actual, tangible threat. QR-code related scams abound, yet another vector for phishing schemes targeting your grandparents. QR codes have also been used recently as a means for vacuuming up yet more data about our habits and feeding them into the vast network of algorithms that track our every move. Escaping this system that stalks us on virtually every app is impossible, of course. But cant we get even one respite from this regime when were ordering fries?
The article focuses on the claimed advantages of using QR in relation to hygiene. But a printed leaflet in our mailbox has nothing to do with COVID and everything with design agency stupidity. If you _really_ want to, why not print both? And after that, why not realize the QR thing is not only redundant but also ugly and wasteful ink-wise?
This reminds me a bit of link shorteners, except this time it's even worse, since my eyes can't read QR. Now _that_ would be something, wouldn't it?
To me, the _quick response_ (lol) code is yet another useless computing invention.

View File

@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
<outline text="Bildung" title="Bildung" description="" type="rss" version="RSS" htmlUrl="https://bildung.royscholten.nl/" xmlUrl="https://bildung.royscholten.nl/feed/"/>
<outline text="Blog on roytang.net" title="Blog on roytang.net" description="" type="rss" version="RSS" htmlUrl="https://roytang.net/blog/" xmlUrl="https://roytang.net/blog/feed/rss"/>
<outline text="Chris Aldrich" title="Chris Aldrich" description="" type="rss" version="RSS" htmlUrl="https://boffosocko.com/" xmlUrl="http://www.boffosocko.com/?cat=-484&amp;feed=rss2"/>
<outline text="ENOSUCHBLOG" title="ENOSUCHBLOG" description="" type="rss" version="RSS" htmlUrl="https://blog.yossarian.net/" xmlUrl="https://blog.yossarian.net/feed.xml"/>
<outline text="Henrique Dias" title="Henrique Dias" description="" type="rss" version="RSS" htmlUrl="" xmlUrl="https://hacdias.com/articles/feed.xml"/>
<outline text="Improved Means for Achieving Deteriorated Ends" title="Improved Means for Achieving Deteriorated Ends" description="" type="rss" version="RSS" htmlUrl="https://blog.kingcons.io/" xmlUrl="https://blog.kingcons.io/rss.xml"/>
<outline text="Interdependent Thoughts" title="Interdependent Thoughts" description="" type="rss" version="RSS" htmlUrl="https://www.zylstra.org/blog" xmlUrl="https://www.zylstra.org/blog/feed/"/>

BIN
static/post/2022/03/qr.jpg Normal file

Binary file not shown.

After

Width:  |  Height:  |  Size: 148 KiB