Wagamama QR Code

This is another one of those mainstream uses of QR Codes that fails to deliver for the consumer.

Regular readers of the blog will know that I have been noting where I have seen QR Codes in the mainstream, in other words in the places regular people will see and use them.

This particular QR Code was in the noodle restaurant chain of Wagamama. It was a link to make a group booking.

As with many mainstream companies the link goes to their full website and not a mobile optimised version. You have to work out which link to click…

Then you need to fill out a form.

Which is quite long and complicated and not that easy to fill in using a mobile device…

It would appear that Wagamama like a lot of companies using QR Codes are failing to realise that people who scan in QR Codes are scanning them in from their smartphones and as a result the web page they are directed to needs to be optimised for the mobile browser. Though Mobile Safari is pretty good at rendering full size websites and the browsing experience isn’t that bad, a mobile version of the full website is normally a much better experience.

A good example of how it can work better is the QR Code used on a BBC cooking programme, though the QR Code wasn’t on screen for very long!

What the Wagamama experience shows is once more that QR Codes are been used because they are “cool” and “trendy” or they are responding to advice from a “consultant” of some kind. It would appear that actual process from start to finish and when I say finish I mean going pass that initial URL that the QR Code sends you to and then trying to book, enter or whatever you are suppose to do hasn’t actually been tested or carried out by “normal” people. What might be even more worrying is that testing had actually been done and the process was considered to be “normal” and “okay” as the users hadn’t experienced anything different!

What I actually think this means that though the mobile web is here and is been used by lots of people, there are still many companies who don’t actually realise that!