Earlier quoted context omitted.
Laminated menus that you can spray and wipe off would make a lot more sense.
On the other hand, pathogens survive longer on a smooth surface than on a rough absorbant surface, and I would guess that they are more likely to be transferred from a smooth surface onto somebody's hand than from a rough absorvant surface. So, taking account of people perhaps not doing all that spraying and wiping properly, a paper menu might turn out to be safer after all.
Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
531–540 of 735 posts
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#532I 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…
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#533It'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…
This is false. A QR-code based menu does not work for people that do not use a smartphone.
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#534Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#535When 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…
I can already see myself, as a tourist who buys a US SIM card to get data on vacation, having to add a SIM card swap to this ordeal to confirm debit card transaction via my EU phone number. Why, oh why...
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#536Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can already see myself, as a tourist who buys a US SIM card to get data on vacation, having to add a SIM card swap to this ordeal to confirm debit card transaction via my EU phone number. Why, oh why...
Aren't most smartphones dual-sim by now?
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#537Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. This statement is utterly useless. It provides no value to the discussion, doesn't make any interesting points, and tries to emotionally manipulate the reader. > Like all things in life, when its implemented well it works and when it does not it is terrible. HN readers seem to…
Even more so: "a crowd of tech workers who generally are trying to pave the way" are professionally engaged in using, critiquing and developing user interfaces. These are the people you hire to tell you "this wasn't a good idea, here's a better one". Super-thin phones. Touch-screen controls in automobiles. QR codes instead of menus. All of these things seem nifty to marketing departments, may be accepted by consumers…
“I don’t like it” is not a critique though. The people you would want to hire could try to answer “here is an imperfect solution, how would you improve it?”
Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#538Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
#539Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible
#540When 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…
I would have left after 1 minute. Enough restaurants that work without this bullshit. Plus I can't scan a QR code at all with my phone.