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Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

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281–290 of 735 posts

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#281
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The default camera app on both AOSP and iOS phones will scan QR codes, so it's really just a single step.

Yes, but you still need to click the link, open in the browser. I don’t trust the average restaurant to make correct security decisions on their online menu/payment system. So pass.

Most restaurants I’ve been to have their QR code link to a PDF and not an ordering website with payments.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phone would be already out whereas the card is more likely in a wallet. The phone is probably faster than getting the card.

Okay so if your phone is your hand already and ready to be used, then it's "more convenient" (i.e. saves maybe 2 seconds) than your card, but then in all other cases it's not? I usually keep my phone in my pocket so this isn't more convenient anyway. Personally I find any hard requirement of a phone extremely _inconvenient_, since it means I must have my phone with me. A card/cash takes up much less space than a phon…

On the other hand, here in the UK I know several people who no longer carry a wallet or cards at all because Apple Pay is so ubiquitously available. I don’t know anyone without a phone.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#283
post #258
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It smacks of entitlement when dining at a restaurant is considered basic necessity and preparing your own meals is considered a luxury. Think about history. Think about the vast, vast majority of people on earth. Consider just how entitled one must be to have the help prepare your basic necessities of life.

By that argument, indoor plumbing and safe running water can also be considered luxuries. Which, while true, is rather reductivist. And if we want to talk history, having food made for you by other rather than making it yourself is not a new thing. Having a servant or a wife/mother/grandmother making you dinner was far more common in the past than it is now. I'd probably guess that more people know how to cook and co…

It's remarkable how much those restaurants they uncovered in Pompeii resemble modern versions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermopolium

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#286
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that doesn't quite qualify as human readable ... Surely something like https://restaurant.tld/menu would make more sense ...

After 20 years of web, I still see commercially printed URLs on signs/buildings/cars/etc that do not understand redirects. I saw http://www.ourcompany.com/sub/registration.aspx on printed on a glass door the other day - looked like etching at first, but may have something else? This was at a local theater/event space, IIRC. "ourcompany.com/register" is infinitely more understandable, and unsure why no one in the chai…

I think most people will just Google the URL and (usually) get the correct address as the first result. This might even be an intentional (if misguided) SEO strategy.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#287

> Before the pandemic, I’d shudder at the sight of a restaurant table full of people all staring at their phones. I was always happy not to be them or be sitting with them. I always kept the lively conversation flowing at my table. I always thought this perspective was funny because it always assumed what the people on their phones were doing. The assumption is that they are disengaged with each other when it's just…

I mean, if that’s how you and your friends want to hang. I don’t like that experience and choose to go to restaurants with people I’d like to eat with and talk to in person. For me, pulling out the phone at dinner is rude. Whatever it is can wait the until after dinner.

It’s only rude if it isn’t expected. If reading the menu requires a phone, having your phone out is expected and not rude. If needing to take out your phone at the beginning of dinner is enough to distract your friends throughout the rest of the meal, perhaps there are larger problems than how you order food.

When I eat with people we use our phones to order and then put them away when they’re no longer necessary. It doesn’t change the dining experience at all and people still talk to each other.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#288
post #129

When they work well, they're really good, but when they work badly, they're _really_ bad. The other week, I went for dinner at a place that had a online ordering system. My experience was as follows... Arrive at the table, scan the QR code No phone signal in the restaurant, so I need to connect to the wifi. Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no si…

Is the online ordering system a cost cutting measure to save on staff or seen as a user benefit?

If you're "good" at marketing, both.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding the next hurdle and man-in-the-middle with "Apple Pay"?

Apple Pay is no more of a hurdle/mitm than whatever payment gateway they were using.

Things are not "good" because somebody made you feel it is comfortable. 800 Euro for an Apple device, account at Apple, network connection with provider and full battery - together with a credit card and all of that is no hurdle? You can just pay immediately with cash. And nobody will be informed about it! Words of critique upon Apple are usually not welcome here. When I look how bad entitlement handling is with MacOS I have more critique...beware.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay so if your phone is your hand already and ready to be used, then it's "more convenient" (i.e. saves maybe 2 seconds) than your card, but then in all other cases it's not? I usually keep my phone in my pocket so this isn't more convenient anyway. Personally I find any hard requirement of a phone extremely _inconvenient_, since it means I must have my phone with me. A card/cash takes up much less space than a phon…

On the other hand, here in the UK I know several people who no longer carry a wallet or cards at all because Apple Pay is so ubiquitously available. I don’t know anyone without a phone.

I do have a phone and usually have it with me, but I don't always have it with me. I think having more payment options is great. Cash, cards, phones, you name it. The variety of options is true convenience. But I don't see how someone can say a phone is more convenient than cash/card for payment. Sure if you already have it with you (an argument which is symmetric anyway), but cash/cards use up less space and...well make payments.
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