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Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

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Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#521

Post by ar_lan »

infecto wrote: post #417

It's really interesting to see how a crowd of tech workers who generally are trying to pave the way are so quick to attack and be negative. Like all things in life, when its implemented well it works and when it does not it is terrible. I still think there is room for this to be the future though. I say this as a westerner but perhaps the west is not ready for it yet but I really enjoyed the experience of using QR co…

> I say this as a westerner but perhaps the west is not ready for it yet

This seems like an odd take. I'd be interested in tangible data, but I'd be inclined to believe that most tech-affluent people are probably OK with QR codes being the norm, in general. It saves money, paper, and isn't really a hard step for anyone with a phone. In general the west is pretty pro-tech.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#522

Post by samstave »

infecto wrote: post #498
samstave wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little while ago, I was making labels for cannabis products. All cannabis products need to be tested by a lab to show their constituent properties (pesticides, THC, CDB, etc) One of the things I did was create a QR code on the labels such that they pointed to a bitly address which then redirected to the PDF of the lab results for each product. This allowed for the consumer to actually read the Lab results, and it p…

I love this. It reminds me of transparency from amazon. Products have a QR code on the outside of the packaging to have some minimal effort prevention on counterfeits. Includes some metadata like manufacturing date and location. https://brandservices.amazon.com/transparency

Huh, yeah the basic intent is the same as with Transparency (hadn't heard about that service until today) -- but its super simple to build out, and any company can easily do it...

There is a bad-ass product from Seagull Scientific, called "barTender" (as in Barcode Tender) -- which is free to use, and does any and all barcodes/QR codes - and label document design.

The only cost is a $500/$600 license for actually connecting it to a printer - but it makes it a breeze to create awesome labels, and print them out en-mass (like many thousands on the high speed printers)...

You can hook it up to a DB or a spreadsheet for pulling all your product labeling info easily to fields so they auto fill for the products you are printing.

Also, with using bitly - you also get a map of the geoip location of each scan - so you can see where interest is high geographically...

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#523

Post by ff317 »

jscheel wrote: post #478
datavirtue wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, QR code menus are superior, until you have to use them. They never have instructions and every device does it differently and not in obvious ways. The only instructions you get from a stressed out server is "just scan it." Ok, how? This is a great way of making tech look stupid to luddites and it reminds me of modern UX trends that expect people to just know how to do some mysterious thing--and developers rely…

It's also super fun to download a 45mb menu on your cellular data plan every time you want to look at the menu.

Exciting positive answers to this problem would be:

1) All such restaurants offering free open wifi + 2) A commercialized system that hosts the menu PDFs on tiny https servers on the restaurant's wifi router and serves them locally (potentially avoiding issues with far-away outages and also saving on the internet bandwidth for the common case).

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#524

Post by bshep »

sksksk wrote: 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…

So, if they have a captive portal, why not put the menu there before you login? That would even make the QR code a moot point, scan QR code or just connect to the wifi and menu magically appears…

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#525

Post by stronglikedan »

Tor3 wrote: post #453

QR codes work fine where I live. I believe problems are due to the implementation, not with the concept. I find it very convenient. Connect to the local wifi, there's no confirmation code, just open wifi (most of the time - some of them have an unnecessary "accept" step. Never any "confirmation code"). Scan. Browse. Choose. Pay, or pay later (convenient, I can adjust the tip before I pay). All in all it's much faster…

> ordering and payment is done via the web browser

This still assumes each customer has a phone. I bought an LTE watch so I could leave the distraction of my phone behind while I dine.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#526

Post by nsxwolf »

wlesieutre wrote: post #324
Talanes wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dated a girl with poor eyesight, and absent a digital version her method was the phone flashlight and holding the menu very close to her face. So the physical version was workable, but a pinch to zoom is still more dignified.

Yes, that or taking photos of each page and then browsing them on the phone. Either way it's worse than a good phone menu. Personally I'd rather have a paper menu, but digital ones can definitely be more accessible for low vision. I say can because half of the digital ones are godawful UX disasters.

Oh certainly. Put the QR code on the paper menu.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#527

Post by ar_lan »

monkeynotes wrote: post #321
Karrot_Kream wrote: post #8

I gotta say, I disagree with this piece. I, for one, love QR code menus. I can pinch zoom rather than squint at a menu with small/unreadable fonts in dim lighting. I don't need to badger the already exhausted wait staff on a busy night when they forget to drop us a menu or two. When orders are taken online, rather than awkwardly force a friend to not go to the bathroom (or take their kid to the bathroom) until a serv…

Wait, restaurants are making you order from an app too?? So now you don't really need your 'exhausted wait staff' so much. Hire less wait staff as a portion are now are underutilized. Now some wait staff have no jobs, and the remainder work the same exhausting shifts. The reason these wait staff get tips is because they work so hard, with less service comes less tips. Now you have a whole industry of overworked AND u…

> Now some wait staff have no jobs, and the remainder work the same exhausting shifts.

This is a lot to unpack. I'm always surprised by people in the tech industry, where we seek to automate so much to make things better... be against innovation?

If a QR menu can tangibly provide a similar or better experience, for less cost, then it is objectively a better value for everyone involved. We shouldn't keep manual jobs around "just because." If that was a valid mindset, then we should get rid of all cars and have large caravans of people to trade across the country to ensure more people have jobs.

In this case, the question becomes "does the QR code provide a similar, or better, experience?" Only time will tell - but if it does, overall, then it will replace the wait staff, and this is a good thing.

This is why discussions of UBI take place, because we shouldn't intentionally do things less efficiently just to save jobs.

> The reason these wait staff get tips is because they work so hard, with less service comes less tips. Now you have a whole industry of overworked AND underpaid staff.

I don't disagree here, but tip culture is an absurd concept and I wish it would die in America. Just bake it into the price of the menu, and pay workers better.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#528

Post by Kaze404 »

dmurray wrote: post #492
Kaze404 wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having both could cause issues, as the digital menu is much easier to update than the physical one, which can lead to inconsistencies. Not that it means it shouldn't be an option, it's just something that needs to be considered

Inconsistency between the digital and physical menu isn't really the problem. We care more about consistency between either menu and the single source of truth, which is what the chef is able to prepare today.

Depends on what the inconsistency is. You order something from the menu and later find out it's more expensive and the updated price is only shown in the digital menu. Depending on where you are that'd be an instant win in court I believe.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#530

Post by stjohnswarts »

Symmetry wrote: post #373
mosselman wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could be wrong, as I often am, but I think getting covid from a surface is recently proven to be highly unlikely.

In March of 2020 we were pretty sure that at most 5% of Covid transmissions were through touched surfaces (fomites). Currently we're sure that at most .01% of Covid transmissions are through surfaces and still haven't found clear evidence of it ever actually having happened so literally 0% still can't be ruled out. But upper respiratory tract infections like the flu do actually spread through fomites pretty easily so…

There are a lot of diseases out there that are transferred on surfaces however. Not everything is about covid
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