5 ms·

What's wrong with QR codes for restaurant menus? Here are the pros I can come up with off the top of my head: - Restaurants can experiment with more food optio

by sxg 3y ago

What's wrong with QR codes for restaurant menus? Here are the pros I can come up with off the top of my head: - Restaurants can experiment with more food options and more frequent updates to their menu - Real time info on what's in stock - Cuts out the cost of having to constantly reprint the menu - Easier for customers to find the menu online when searching for restaurants (huge issue pre-COVID) What are the actual downsides? Sure, there may be a tiny fraction of people without a smartphone, but they're likely accompanied by someone who does have one. Despite that, restaurants would likely keep a few physical menus on-hand.

rhino369 3y ago
I find menus on phones harder to read. And it just feels annoying to have everyone’s face in their phones at a meal. I have no issue with it being default, but since covid ended, the places that still use qr menus seem not to have paper menus on hand. It’s not the end of the world but it makes your restaurant feel cheap. Still 100 times better than places that make you order on your phone.
danpalmer 3y ago
A major con for me is that I don’t want to get my phone out. If I use my phone to read the menu I’m also seeing notifications, they may distract me even if only by making me think about them. I’d rather just not check my phone for the duration of the meal. Also I have friends and relatives who have never owned a smartphone, some who would be essentially unable to do so. That said, another benefit is more scope for accessibility. I would bet that most restaurant sites are terrible for accessibility, but implementing screen reader or large font support would apply everywhere, whereas I’d also bet that most restaurant never have braille or large print menus.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  > If I use my phone to read the menu I’m also seeing notifications You can turn on do not disturb until you leave the current location on iOS. I do that a lot. You have all of the tools you need. It's like someone complaining that the sun is too bright when they have their cap turned backwards and their shades on top of their head.
  - vdqtp3 3y ago
    > It's like someone complaining that the sun is to bright when they have their cap turned backwards and their shades on top of their head. It's more like you're saying that it shouldn't be a problem to require someone to stare directly into the sun because they should have brought eclipse glasses and be fine with using them
    - scarface_74 3y ago
      If that were the case, 95% of the US population would be going blind. It amazes me how many people are railing against technology while posting on HN...
      - zabzonk 3y ago
        It amazes me that you cannot seem to realise that many people have problems with the inappropriate uses of technologies.
        scarface_74 3y ago
        And they are free to make choices and accept the inconveniences that come with those choices. I’m sure people complained about those horseless carriages years after cars became mainstream
        zabzonk 3y ago
        why do you think that so many people here are proposing that the choices you suggest are toxic? because they are stupid?
        scarface_74 3y ago
        Well, if you stay in the HN bubble you would think that in normal life, people are complaining that they can't run Linux on AirPods.... But in the real world, smart phone penetration is 95%, including 94$ of the homeless (I posted a citation earlier) > why do you think that so many people here are proposing that the choices you suggest are toxic? People also think that alcohol sales shouldn't happen on Sunday, and all other crazy stuff. I'm simply suggesting that if your choices are out of the society's norms, it's not society's responsibility to make affordances for you.
- the_snooze 3y ago
  >If I use my phone to read the menu I’m also seeing notifications, they may distract me even if only by making me think about them. This is my concern as well. When someone is at a table with people, put the damn phone away and actually be present for those around you. QR code menus make "phones out" the default state of a table. So of course people will get distracted and split their attention between notifications and those around them.
approxim8ion 3y ago
The problem is that most of the time a "QR Code Menu" means a QR code pointing to a PDF hosted on Google Drive or alike, a digitized version of a paper menu which was never meant to be read on tiny phone screens and is a pain to read with no reflow. You have to squint at your screen to figure out what you want, and then the rest of the process is the same, someone comes down and takes your order. What you presumably mean by "QR Code Menu" is a QR code pointing to a website where the content is optimized for screens and perhaps interactive, allowing you to order from your table without involving wait staff and thus streamlining the entire ordering process for you and the restaurant.
- sofixa 3y ago
  So what people actually have a problem with is shitty implementations, not the idea of "QR Code Menus"? Why don't they just say so?
  - approxim8ion 3y ago
    Because they're talking about their experiences with QR Code Menus, the majority of which are the way I described them.
  - probably_wrong 3y ago
    If 95% of all practical implementations of a concept are bad implementations then I don't have a good idea implemented badly. What I have instead is an idea that fails to work when faced with the real world. I'd say it's warranted to call that "a bad idea".
  - itsyaboi 3y ago
    Don't be intentionally obtuse. Reframing the parent comment as "the _only_ concern (all) people have is poor QR code menu implementations" is disingenuous and myopic.
basisword 3y ago
- Paper menus are much easier to browse. - Lots of restaurants have no WiFi and may also have poor cell reception for certain networks. This either makes the menu slow to access or impossible to access. - I shouldn’t have to pass my phone around the table to people who can’t access the online menu. That slows everything down and most people don’t want others on their phones anyway. - When they throw in payment with their online menu there are inevitably issues. I’ve had this fail numerous times (money taken, order didn’t go through). - Lots of restaurants have PDF menus designed for a computer screen. They’re awful to browse on a phone.
dockd 3y ago
The usual downside is the menu was designed to be printed and not viewed on a screen that is 1/4 or less the size. So I see part of the drink menu horizontally and vertically. Another example: Non-alcoholic is on the "back" of the menu but wine is on the "front". And now the restaurant needs to hire a UX designer.
ryandrake 3y ago
In addition to all the other downsides listed, here's another more basic one: I don't want to order food from a smartphone! If I wanted to push a button and get food, I'd eat out of a vending machine or order with DoorDash. One of the reasons I go into a restaurant or some other meatspace "event" is to escape technology for a tiny bit of time and enjoy life. I want to sit down in a comfortable place, enjoy a conversation with my family, or bask in the ambience of the restaurant. I want to have a pleasant, human interaction with a human server. With these digital-only menus, now I'm yet again pulling out my smartphone and scrolling-scrolling-scrolling. Sorry, due to work I've got screens blasting at me for hours every day. I'm not going to go out in the evening to look at another screen.
hindsightbias 3y ago
Remind me in 20 years when the majority of HN loses their near vision and their 3 month old prescription isn't working. The future is going to be hysterical as the US ages out.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  I'm already there. I cannot read my phone without glasses. And I often misplace my glasses, or leave the house without them.
  - hindsightbias 3y ago
    We need to bring the monocle back. Very portable.
ben_w 3y ago
Printing costs so little that you can do completely unique menus for each patron for less than a full time software engineer.
steelframe 3y ago
> What are the actual downsides? Surveillance. For those of us who still care, that is.

by sxg 3y ago

rhino369 3y ago

I find menus on phones harder to read. And it just feels annoying to have everyone’s face in their phones at a meal. I have no issue with it being default, but since covid ended, the places that still use qr menus seem not to have paper menus on hand. It’s not the end of the world but it makes your restaurant feel cheap. Still 100 times better than places that make you order on your phone.

danpalmer 3y ago

A major con for me is that I don’t want to get my phone out. If I use my phone to read the menu I’m also seeing notifications, they may distract me even if only by making me think about them. I’d rather just not check my phone for the duration of the meal. Also I have friends and relatives who have never owned a smartphone, some who would be essentially unable to do so. That said, another benefit is more scope for accessibility. I would bet that most restaurant sites are terrible for accessibility, but implementing screen reader or large font support would apply everywhere, whereas I’d also bet that most restaurant never have braille or large print menus.

scarface_74 3y ago
> If I use my phone to read the menu I’m also seeing notifications You can turn on do not disturb until you leave the current location on iOS. I do that a lot. You have all of the tools you need. It's like someone complaining that the sun is too bright when they have their cap turned backwards and their shades on top of their head.
- vdqtp3 3y ago
  > It's like someone complaining that the sun is to bright when they have their cap turned backwards and their shades on top of their head. It's more like you're saying that it shouldn't be a problem to require someone to stare directly into the sun because they should have brought eclipse glasses and be fine with using them
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    If that were the case, 95% of the US population would be going blind. It amazes me how many people are railing against technology while posting on HN...
    - zabzonk 3y ago
      It amazes me that you cannot seem to realise that many people have problems with the inappropriate uses of technologies.
      - scarface_74 3y ago
        And they are free to make choices and accept the inconveniences that come with those choices. I’m sure people complained about those horseless carriages years after cars became mainstream
        zabzonk 3y ago
        why do you think that so many people here are proposing that the choices you suggest are toxic? because they are stupid?
        scarface_74 3y ago
        Well, if you stay in the HN bubble you would think that in normal life, people are complaining that they can't run Linux on AirPods.... But in the real world, smart phone penetration is 95%, including 94$ of the homeless (I posted a citation earlier) > why do you think that so many people here are proposing that the choices you suggest are toxic? People also think that alcohol sales shouldn't happen on Sunday, and all other crazy stuff. I'm simply suggesting that if your choices are out of the society's norms, it's not society's responsibility to make affordances for you.
the_snooze 3y ago
>If I use my phone to read the menu I’m also seeing notifications, they may distract me even if only by making me think about them. This is my concern as well. When someone is at a table with people, put the damn phone away and actually be present for those around you. QR code menus make "phones out" the default state of a table. So of course people will get distracted and split their attention between notifications and those around them.

approxim8ion 3y ago

The problem is that most of the time a "QR Code Menu" means a QR code pointing to a PDF hosted on Google Drive or alike, a digitized version of a paper menu which was never meant to be read on tiny phone screens and is a pain to read with no reflow. You have to squint at your screen to figure out what you want, and then the rest of the process is the same, someone comes down and takes your order. What you presumably mean by "QR Code Menu" is a QR code pointing to a website where the content is optimized for screens and perhaps interactive, allowing you to order from your table without involving wait staff and thus streamlining the entire ordering process for you and the restaurant.

sofixa 3y ago
So what people actually have a problem with is shitty implementations, not the idea of "QR Code Menus"? Why don't they just say so?
- approxim8ion 3y ago
  Because they're talking about their experiences with QR Code Menus, the majority of which are the way I described them.
- probably_wrong 3y ago
  If 95% of all practical implementations of a concept are bad implementations then I don't have a good idea implemented badly. What I have instead is an idea that fails to work when faced with the real world. I'd say it's warranted to call that "a bad idea".
- itsyaboi 3y ago
  Don't be intentionally obtuse. Reframing the parent comment as "the _only_ concern (all) people have is poor QR code menu implementations" is disingenuous and myopic.

basisword 3y ago

- Paper menus are much easier to browse. - Lots of restaurants have no WiFi and may also have poor cell reception for certain networks. This either makes the menu slow to access or impossible to access. - I shouldn’t have to pass my phone around the table to people who can’t access the online menu. That slows everything down and most people don’t want others on their phones anyway. - When they throw in payment with their online menu there are inevitably issues. I’ve had this fail numerous times (money taken, order didn’t go through). - Lots of restaurants have PDF menus designed for a computer screen. They’re awful to browse on a phone.

dockd 3y ago

The usual downside is the menu was designed to be printed and not viewed on a screen that is 1/4 or less the size. So I see part of the drink menu horizontally and vertically. Another example: Non-alcoholic is on the "back" of the menu but wine is on the "front". And now the restaurant needs to hire a UX designer.

ryandrake 3y ago

In addition to all the other downsides listed, here's another more basic one: I don't want to order food from a smartphone! If I wanted to push a button and get food, I'd eat out of a vending machine or order with DoorDash. One of the reasons I go into a restaurant or some other meatspace "event" is to escape technology for a tiny bit of time and enjoy life. I want to sit down in a comfortable place, enjoy a conversation with my family, or bask in the ambience of the restaurant. I want to have a pleasant, human interaction with a human server. With these digital-only menus, now I'm yet again pulling out my smartphone and scrolling-scrolling-scrolling. Sorry, due to work I've got screens blasting at me for hours every day. I'm not going to go out in the evening to look at another screen.

hindsightbias 3y ago

Remind me in 20 years when the majority of HN loses their near vision and their 3 month old prescription isn't working. The future is going to be hysterical as the US ages out.

SoftTalker 3y ago
I'm already there. I cannot read my phone without glasses. And I often misplace my glasses, or leave the house without them.
- hindsightbias 3y ago
  We need to bring the monocle back. Very portable.

ben_w 3y ago

Printing costs so little that you can do completely unique menus for each patron for less than a full time software engineer.

steelframe 3y ago

> What are the actual downsides? Surveillance. For those of us who still care, that is.