What is that thing, that weird design? You see them all over, but in fact the marketing drones are using them less and less. They’ve become passé in some circles, like the Comic Sans font (which is another story).
In the Big Picture, the graphic at the top of this post is a barcode. It’s a variation on the more popular zebra stripe code you see on just about everything you buy — even my books. Specifically, that type of barcode is known as a QR Code. (QR stands for Quick Response.)
The QR Code has become popular in recent years, affixing itself to more than just products. In fact, it’s pretty ubiquitous. What makes it so common is that smartphones can employ a barcode scanning app that reads the information.
For example, say that you’re out shopping and you see some dingus you want to buy. You scan the barcode and your phone tells you what it is and how much it costs at several different vendors. So maybe you scan a desk lamp at Target and discover that the same lamp is available at Kmart for cheaper. I suppose people really did that, but I never bothered.
My early Android books were chock full of QR Codes. They allowed you to use your phone to scan in apps and web sites. It worked really well, but then I stopped including them.
That’s because the barcode thing suddenly went into overdrive.
Soon the QR Codes appeared everywhere. They were overused and tired. And often people (and I’m referring to marking drones, not people) didn’t understand how they could best be used.
So they’d slap a QR Code on a website and the QR Code would simply link back to that same website. That’s like having a QR Code on a roadside sign and the result of scanning the code is the text “roadside sign.”
Where it was once a thing of convenience and high-tech magic, the QR Code suddenly became a joke. That’s why I pulled them from my books. Seeing the code no longer said, “Hey! This is trendy and all the cool kids are doing it.” It said, “I’m a dork.”
Because I pulled the QR Codes, I also removed reference to any barcode scanning app. If you would like to obtain one of those apps for your Android, I recommend and use the Barcode Scanner from Zxing. Click here to obtain that app from the Google Play Store.
