I’m sure there are some people who are totally tired of my rapturous singing-the-praises of QR codes, but, man: these things are just the ginchiest.
First of all, you’ll want to read Jen Cushman’s post about these–that’s what got me excited. I’d seen QR codes, and I’d read in the NYT about how cool they are, where they said these codes were going to be the new happenin’ thang. But somehow their description left me cold, and the codes I’d seen were all about cheesy ads for places like Kohl’s and Target. Once Jen explained what artists and writers could do with the codes, though, *that’s* when I got excited.
You can listen to our podcast on QR codes here.
Then someone told me how their garden club uses the codes on plants to provide additional information about planting and watering. I love this–you would have the link even after the tag got lost–the way those plastic plant tags always do. And that made me think of other ideas–codes on menus, showing what the food looks like, with nutritional info, maybe even a video of the chef talking about how she created that entree.
I was thinking about elder care facilities, where, I’ve heard, it’s really wonderful for both the patient and the staff if they have photos of the patient’s family and events from their past. Imagine a QR code on their door that showed home movie or an interview, something that introduced the patient to her care-givers.
Then this week I came across this blog, with a cool idea for using tags that I hadn’t even thought of. Here’s another post showing her tags, which I just love.
You scan the label and get more information. I don’t know what she’s putting there, but you could have fabric content, or care, or a video showing how you dyed the fabric or created the pattern, or you could have ways to wear the garment–a mini-style video. The possibilities are just endless. It’s a whole nother dimension, where you get to go deeper and learn more and see more stuff.
And the things you can do with the tags themselves–pretty amazing. Zazzle.com lets you put them on everything from buttons to hats to mugs. I was going to wait to write about this until I get my own buttons, but I was too impatient. Here are my MOO cards I got on Saturday, though; I hoped to get them in time to let Jen show them for her post about MOO cards last week, but you know how that goes: nothing ever arrives by the time you wish you had it.
The code on these links to my trailer video for Destination: Creativity, but you know I’m thinking of more videos and more codes. As Jen explained, you can link the code to anything online–a photo, a podcast, a video, an address. There are lots of sites where you can make these for free in less than a minute–I’m serious: you paste in the URL where you want the code to go, click, download, and you’re done.
I’m completely smitten.
Ricë also blogs at Notes from the Voodoo Cafe.
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