SquarePush - 2D Barcode size and experiences

2D Barcode size and experiences

I went to see District 9 the other day, and while I was in the lobby I noticed the new poster for Tim Burtons ‘9’ movie. If you haven’t seen it, I’ve included it below

In the center of the poster is a type of 2D barcode called a QR code, which the consumer can scan with a cellphone camera(with software) and be sent to the URL encoded in the barcode. This article assumes you already know a little about these.

The first thing I noticed of was the unusually dense barcode. Normally I’d expect a barcode to look like this

Which is 21×21 blocks of data. But the QR Code on the ‘9’ poster was 29×29, a huge difference. Why does it matter? You see currently when you use a QR Code in todays market, a disproportionally large number of your ‘clicks’ will come from iPhones. And since these are phone without an autofocus lens, you have can’t get them too close to the code you’re reading or the image will be blurry and you’ll be unable to scan the code. In this case the poster was large enough that it could be read by an iPhone, but the more dense the barcode the harder it is to read and the longer it takes. The phone processor has 841 blocks to deal with rather than 441, a 91% increase.

What’s the solution

Well here’s the embarrassing part for Hyperfactory Ltd, the company that built the mobile campaign – the poster’s code above and the smaller example below it are the same. They resolve to the same URL, work on all QR code readers, and both meet the Denso Wave standard – with one exception, I uppercased all the characters in the URL on the smaller one. That’s right, by using only uppercase ASCII characters, I reduced the complexity of the barcode by 47%. The reason, when using only uppercase ASCII characters, the encoding method reverts to a simpler character set which results in more compression.

Now I can’t fault Hyperfactory too much; it’s a new technology and a market that’s greatly misunderstood. But now their users have to deal with scanning a more complicated barcode, and the likelihood successful scans decreases. So it’s still a costly mistake none the less.

QR Codes are actually quite simple

Actually, ridiculously simple. In fact there are only 2 rules you need to know when generating your own codes

1. Use only uppercase characters in the URL, and avoid complicated URL’s. By complicated I mean URL’s with ‘?’ or ‘&’ in them, which force the barcode complexity to increase dramatically. This usually happens when you have a long URL that includes extra data, such as a Google Map’s URL. Simply run these through a service like bit.ly. Note: You’ll need to use the custom address feature and give it a name with all uppercase characters, as bit.ly is case sensitive
2. Keep it under 25 characters but don’t worry about getting it as short as possible. A 14 character URL results in the same 21×21 barcode as a 25 character URL. So instead of making it cryptic and small(e.g. http://9.msite.tv/qr1), use the space to build a nice looking URL. For example, in this case, HTTP://M.9THEMOVIE.COM/1 – where 1 is your tracking number for the poster.

Resources

Need to quickly generate a QR code, check out these resources:

• The Google Charts API – Free and fast, but requires some basic web knowledge. It’s a great solution to integrate into an existing web application, and that’s why it’s our personal favorite.
• INVX encoder – This is a the more user friendly of the two; it allows you to quickly generate 2D barcodes on the fly. Just plug in the URL and go. Better than the Kaywa encoder in my opinion, as Kaywa tends to add unnecessary error correction to the codes.

Don’t get fooled by the marketing firms that make QR codes and mobile campaigns seem difficult. If you have any questions about QR codes, and how to integrate them into you web application, give us a call. We can usually build a solution in a matter of days that get the results you need, without a lot of extra work. Really, it’s that simple!