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Infographic

Students Don’t Care About QR Codes, You Probably Don’t Either [Infographic]

by James Plafke | 10:20 am, November 29th, 2011

Some consider QR codes a noble failure — neat in theory and practice, but who cares? Not students. Have you ever whipped out your phone to capture a QR code while waiting for the bus or train, or did you just kind of stare at the pattern and feel the need to dig your old Nintendo out of the closet and play some pixelated gaming history? Marketing firm Archirival wondered how engaging the QR codes tend to be, and took to college campuses to find out. A clever move, in that college kids are usually seen as the epicenter of technology adoption. Archrival found that only 21 percent of the surveyed students successfully scanned a QR code before, and 75 percent said they don’t plan on scanning one in the future. Aside from those interesting, yet dismal for companies that employ QR codes percentages, there are some more findings below, all prettied up in infographic form.

(via Archrival)

Relevant to your interests

  • http://twitter.com/shockedandawed Shock & Awe

    Why is there a portion of that pie graph for “I don’t know if I have a smartphone?!”  That’s like saying I don’t know if I have feet.

  • DDD:

    Maybe they own a Nokia

  • http://twitter.com/gotchamobi Chris Jenkin

    Thanks for sharing this. Customizing a QR code will definitely change how students look at it. Besides, no one would scan a code without knowing what it is.. I mean, before hand a person should at least know where it came from (for security purposes). Or what lies ahead upon scanning it (perks and prices for example or data/information etc.)

  • http://twitter.com/johncfarrier John Farrier

    We’ve got a bunch of QR codes on my campus. There aren’t used often at this point, but the cost of creating them is so negligible that it’s probably worth the effort to put them up.

    Anyway, I don’t think that the surveyors asked the right question. Who’s going to scan any QR code that they see? I certainly wouldn’t. The QR code has to link to something useful and be marketed as such. The QR code should be on a sign that says something like “Scan this code to get more information about X” and X should be something appealing to the audience. If the code isn’t being scanned, it’s likely to be a problem with X, not the QR code.

  • John Giotta

    I scan QR codes when they’re appealing, but most of the time I’m not looking to view content on my phone at that exact moment. I find it more useful, if say, commuter maps were downloadable by scanning.

  • http://www.qr-codeworld.com Ag_mac

    Agree that some customizing the look would help for security.  I noticed that QR-Codeworld has a lot of unusual 3D and colorful codes that could help.

  • Lgolloher

    I think the issue isn’t the QR code itself, but the fact that marketers aren’t giving consumers a compelling enough reason to scan it. If marketers start being more innovative and offering real value (entertainment, information, exclusive offers, etc.) then this segment will be much more will to engage with the codes. Afterall, QR codes are only tool so don’t fault them if they’re not being properly used. 

  • Bright

    I completely ignore QR Codes, because 99% of the time in the situation they are used in there is no reason to go to their website. I think their a good idea, quick and easy way to get to a website for further additional information but I rarely see them in instances where they are useful.

    My school’s Bookstore uses this on their ad things which are only located in the bookstore but the only thing on the website is store hours but the store hours are on the front of the store.


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