QR Code suggestion for FamilySearch Centers
This idea is not original with me. It comes from a question that was raised last Wednesday evening June 21 during the Center Chatter meeting. The idea is that a QR Code can be created as a link to the URL for a specific ‘Help Article’ which provides instruction for how to do specific actions in FamilySearch. Then a patron/guest or worker at the FamilySearch Center could use the QR Code to link to the Help Article when they are wanting to do a specific action and want to follow the Help Article instruction. The idea that was raised at the meeting was that individuals could create their own QR Codes at individual Centers.
My suggestion would be to have the individuals at FamilySearch who create or amend Help Articles also create a downloadable QR Code to link to the URL for the specific Help Article. Then each Center can download the QR Code for the Help Articles that would be helpful in the Center. The QR Code then becomes available as a quick link tool on their cell/mobile devices, for the people at the Center.
We see the use of QR Codes at the Centers already happening with the new signage for inside doors, which has a QR Code on the sign.
Comments
-
Why involve QR codes? Why not just use the URL?
(Spoken as someone who failed Phone and has never used a QR code in her life.)
1 -
It's trivially easy to create a QR code from a URL. If a particular FamilySearch Center wants to generate QR codes for a set of URLs, then they are free to do so.
To implement this suggestion, FamilySearch would have to decide which pages would have QR codes, generate them, and also clutter the user interface on all those pages with the QR code option. Surely FamilySearch would not include some pages that some centers would want links to, and so those centers would have to generate their own QR codes anyway. I fail to see much benefit at all in FamilySearch doing this, and the resulting clutter would be annoying.
2 -
One advantage of QR codes is that they can be posted in places where a URL just wouldn't work or would be difficult to access. For example, a QR code could be posted on the printer in a FamilySearch Center that links to a help article explaining how to scan images and upload them as Memories.
0 -
Why involve QR codes? Why not just use the URL?
If you are sitting at a computer and need to click a link to jump to a new site, QR codes are useless clutter.
If you are on your phone's browser and need to go from one web page to another, they are again useless because you can just click a link.
However, if you are looking at a computer screen or a piece of paper and need to open something from either of those on your phone and the URL is 100 characters long, a QR code is quite helpful. Scanning a QR code is a lot faster then hitting 100 little keystrokes correctly.
0