1. What is QR Code?
QR Code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside the industry due to its fast readability and large storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes. The code consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be made up of four standardized kinds (“modes”) of data (numeric, alphanumeric, byte/binary, Kanji), or through supported extensions, virtually any kind of data. (Source – Wikipedia )
2. What do people use QR Code for?
Marketing & Promotion, Networking, Campaign, Information, Education, and Art!
3. What do you need to read a QR Code?
Smartphone(iPhone, Android phones), Handheld device(iPod Touch) , tablet PC (iPad, Kindle Fire) with a camera and internet access. You will need to download a QR code reading apps. Go to your App store and type in ‘QR code reader’ and you will be able to find bunch of free apps, such as QR code reader and scanner.
4. What can I do with QR Code?
Many things!
1) Share a website URL with people (By reading the QR code, a smartphone will automatically load a designated website link)
2) Have people download a music
3) Share a specific text with people
4) Share your contact info with people
5) Have people call you
6) Have people text you
7) Have people follow you in Twitter
8) Have people like you in Facebook
9) Have people download a coupon or get a special offer
10) Have people donate for a charity
5. How do I generate my own QR Code?
You first need a URL, or any other contents you plan to share, such as text, your contact info or twitter account, and you can go to any of free QR code generator websites to generate one. All you need to do after is filling out info you want to share, like a URL. Here are one of the free QR code generator websites:
Once you download your QR code as an image file, you can print it out and start using it in whichever way you want! (You can create a business card with it, print out a postcard, poster, stickers, etc.
* Remember that any of URLs of your personal accounts(such as your email account) will not be able to be shared with other people unless they know your ID and password. This also applies to Google Maps. You cannot just copy the address that you see in the browser and send it to your friend to share, the URL of the map you see in the browser when you are logged in is on valid when you log in to your account. That’s why we learned how to share the map using Google Plus, so that its generates an absolute URL for other people to see the map without logging into your account! So when you are creating a QR Code of your final Google Maps, you need to make sure that you first share it in Google Plus to get the absolute URL, and copy that URL in order to generate the QR Code. NEVER copy the URL that you see when you log in to Google Maps.
6. QR Code examples
3) QR code Art
4) 10 Creative Ways to Use QR Codes for Marketing
- Assignment
Improve your own Google map. Revisit the QR code example sites above and try to think how your QR code could be presented.