Nine QR code mistakes that cost you scans

Codes placed on escalators, codes with no reason to scan, codes cropped past the quiet zone. All avoidable.

In rough order of how often we see them.

• **No reason to scan.** A bare code on a poster asks for effort and offers nothing. One line — "Scan for the menu" — outperforms any amount of styling.

• **Placed where nobody can stop.** Escalators, motorway billboards, the side of a moving bus. If the reader cannot stand still and aim, the code is decoration.

• **Too small for the distance.** Ten to one, width to reading distance. A 2 cm code on a shop window does not work from the pavement.

• **Quiet zone cropped.** A designer trims the white margin to fit the grid and the code becomes unreliable on some readers. Four modules of clear space, always.

• **Over-styled.** Rounded to the point where the finder patterns lose their proportions, or contrast dropped to match a pastel palette. Our builder caps styling that would break decoding, which is occasionally frustrating and always correct.

• **Static code for a URL that will change.** The campaign ends, the page 404s, and 20,000 flyers point at nothing. Dynamic codes exist for exactly this.

• **Destination not mobile friendly.** Every scan is a phone. Landing on a desktop-width PDF is a scan you paid for and wasted.

• **Never tested in situ.** Test with a cheap phone, in the real lighting, on the real material — not a screenshot on a monitor.

• **Nobody tracking it.** If nothing is measured, the next campaign repeats the same mistakes with the same confidence.

The one that is not a design mistake

Everything above is fixable in artwork. The most expensive mistake happens earlier, in the brief: printing a code before deciding whether the destination might ever change.

A static code is a permanent commitment made at print time. It is the right call for a Wi-Fi password on a wall or a vCard on a card, where there is no service dependency and no reason to change. It is the wrong call for a campaign landing page, a seasonal menu, an event agenda or a product page, all of which move.

How to decide in one question

Ask how long the printed item will exist, and how long the destination will be correct. If the item outlives the destination, print a dynamic code. Table cards last years while menus change monthly. Property boards outlive listings. Packaging outlives campaigns. Business cards outlive job titles.

When those two numbers are close — a one-off event flyer pointing at a page that will exist forever — static is fine and carries no dependency. When they are far apart, a static code guarantees a reprint, and the reprint always costs more than the plan would have.