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I hate the writer's terminology of calling them "QR Code Menus". I would call them web page menus. The QR Code is only used to encode the URL, not the full men
by nayuki 4y ago
I hate the writer's terminology of calling them "QR Code Menus". I would call them web page menus.
The QR Code is only used to encode the URL, not the full menu content. The menu is simply a web page, whose address can be obtained by many methods - QR Code, Data Matrix code, Aztec code, PDF417 code, Google search, manually typing text, etc.
Furthermore, I don't like how many QR Codes do not have human-readable text. For example, if I wanted to access a restaurant menu on a laptop computer, it makes more sense to type a URL than to awkwardly position its webcam (if it even has one) to scan a barcode.
I very much agree with the author's sentiment that requiring a digital device with power and Internet to simply read a menu is user-hostile.
- zarzavat 4y ago“Web page menu” does not distinguish it from the existing practice of a restaurant putting its menu on its website, so that you can read the menu before you visit. Nobody has any problem with that. The problem is most certainly the QR code. The QR code is what is requiring me to have a charged phone (= phone+power bank+charging cable) to read the damn menu. If they gave people devices to read the menu on (e.g. how McDonalds does it) then it would be less problematic.
- nayuki 4y agoFine, how about calling the practice as "web-only menus on customer's device"? Even if the restaurant didn't use QR Codes, if the table said "Visit restaurant.com/menu", then you would still be forced to pull out your phone. The QR Code is just a way to convey a URL, and there are definitely alternatives like manually typing one.