QR Codes Are Obsolete

January 1, 2014

by Michele von Dambrowski

Michele von DambrowskiNot only are Quick Response codes dead, they “should have never lived,” claims Dean Browell, PhD, execu­tive vice president for the social media strategy firm Feedback in Richmond, VA.

Browell likens QR codes to the ill-fated CueCat, a cat-shaped code reader that plugged into a computer like a mouse. Wired and a few other magazines sent the reader to subscribers so that they could scan bar codes for more information on articles and ads in their publi­cations. A year after the device’s introduction in the late 1990s, the verdict was swift. The reviews said the device was “unnatural” to use, and it was “not solving a problem,” Browell explains.

QR codes also look hideous. According to Browell, the behavior of consumers when they see a QR code is to ask, “What the heck is that?”


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