NYC Big Apps : Our submission
It’s been a while we wrote a blog post. “Stuff” is keeping us busy :)
We are excited to share in this post, our submission to the NYC Big Apps. More than participating in a competition, we are excited to say that we are solving a real world problem - Feedback to the authorities on your cab ride.
http://2011.nycbigapps.com/submissions/5828-nyc-feedforward
Here’s how we came across this problem. From an article in WSJ
New Yorkers don’t hide how they feel about cabbies: Every day, an average of 20 people complain to the city about a rude or dangerous taxi driver.
So to cut down on 311 costs from the taxpayers’ money, we thought of leveraging technology here.
If you like the solution, vote for us. In either case, we would love to get feedback ..errr .. or should we say Feedforward :)
Also, we want to mention and thank Prezi, which we used to create the presentation. Here is the link to the presentation.
http://prezi.com/8txuz-rx0sjj/nyc-big-apps-and-queaar/
We also used Yipit API, to show real time deals to folks who gave feedback about the taxi, and may want to now check if something exciting is going around.
STOP SOPA!
We need not say more, or explain what SOPA is. But if you still want to read more, here is the link to Stop American Censorship : Read more here about it.
Here is what our creative team created for the movement. Feel free to distribute and use it.
Source: qr.do
Happy New Year
Here is our Newsletter and New Year wishes which we sent to all our users. We thought of putting it up as a blog post as well.
Hi,
As we enter the year 2012, we wish you and your family a very happy and a prosperous New year.
Thank You for showing interest in Queaar and selecting us as partner in your promotional campaigns. Your valuable support and feedback has constantly been our inspiration. It has encouraged us to redesign our platform to give you a comfortable and easy experience.
Let us take this opportunity to share some of the changes we have introduced to make your experience convenient,
- Goal-based Campaign design
We would not want you to spend time thinking and designing your campaigns, rather we would love to suggest you campaigns based on your Business Goal.
- Better analytics
With a new look our dashboard now has few more levels for you to dig through the analytics for your campaigns. This will help you make better informed decisions for your campiagns.
- Quick & Easy setup of Campaign
Our claim of “few minutes” setup for your campaign has been improvised now with our goal-based campaign design.
As we step into 2012, we re-affirm our commitment to continue offering you more and better experience with Queaar.
Happy New Year.
We generally do not post news about implementation of QR Codes. But we couldn’t resist. We wanted to say “HOLY COW”!!! .. sounds so cool :)
Thanks 2-d Code for sharing the link.
Mobile Navigation Design : From Tabs to List & Why we did it?
So far on this blog, we did not discuss much about our technology and the UI/ UX piece.
But in this post we would want to share our insight into mobile navigation and options available. Finally we would want to talk about why we went from Tab based mobile navigation to List based.
Folks who have browsed our mobile page after scanning the QR Codes or as part of a direct URL browsing (e.g. http://qr.do/911), we had a Tab based Navigation. (see below)
It looked neat, user could move between pages with single click (biggest advantage) and most of all it is a very conventional “browser” based navigation which we are all very used to. And so we went ahead with a tab based browsing navigation for our mobile sites.
However, soon we started running into some restrictions. Below are few documented.
#1. Text Length : We couldn’t have long names of the tabs. Ofcourse we didn’t want a sentence to put in there, but even few words were causing issue in overall rendering and “expandibility”
#2. Sub title : What if we want to put a sub-title to the Tab title?
#3. Icons in tabs : Sure, one can put an icon in the tab based design, but it was eating up some space on the page. The content portion of the page was getting reduced. Now on top of that if you put advertisement or a footer, then the actual content space reduced even further.
#4. Logo rendering : We want businesses to brand themselves and using their logo is a great way of doing that. With the tab based navigation, putting the logo in the header was working okay, but not great!
Some of the issues mentioned above started out quest to figure out what options we have got. Now we don’t want to repeat what is already discussed awesomely on some of the links below.
http://sixrevisions.com/user-interface/a-quick-look-at-mobile-web-designs/
http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/1994-mobile-site-design-best-practices/
http://www.noupe.com/how-tos/mobile-web-design-tips-and-best-practices.html
http://www.mobileawesomeness.com/
After our research and further discussions within our creative and product team, we decided to go with “List” based navigation and this is what we got! Hope you like it.
Let us know if there is anything better we can do.
International Signage Translation Assistant
Above signage will make absolute no sense if you don’t understand Japanese. Language becomes one of the biggest barriers when you vacation in a country where local languages have prominence over International languages.
Considering the fact signage translation is specially taken care on international airports where a signage will have a local language, English language and some sort of internationally recognized icon. But as an international traveler your life might become difficult when you need to open a guide or ask someone at every turn
We at Queaar thought about the possibility of QR code serving your language translation assistance. Imagine a scenario where a signage comes with a QR code and when you scan it, it gives you a language translation options and you can see the displayed content in whatever language you want.
On the other hand QR Code can help in Localization. When you scan a QR code it can give you a Local language version of piece of information. Localization and Internationalization can certainly increase the conversion rate of your marketing campaign.
Image Source: http://japan.fjordaan.net/imagery.html
He (Steve Jobs) really knew the future, as always. Else how could he be so right on the timing of putting Tim Cooks on the seat! #stevejobs #genius
We actually created a new jargon : QRL
Atleast we believe it! And also the creators of QRLME.com. We recently noticed an article in The Next Web, introducing a UK based startup - QRLME.com
Upon further digging up, we could see that this domain was registered on Sept 21, 2011. Now Queaar Inc, has been talking about QRL since several months (from the time we went Beta).
We also had written a blog sometime back about how QRL is actually a URL from a QR Code.
We all are happy to see QRL is becoming a jargon and this is the very reason for us not to Trademark it. We want everyone to use it freely in their lingo and drive up the usability of QR Codes.
Thanks Paul Sawers for the article.
How to convert a cardboard Notice board to an electronic Notice Board?
Even though ‘Change is constant’, it ain’t easy to accept.
We are not proposing to embed electronic circuits, chips and digital screens to convert a wooden notice board into an electronic notice board. In fact this fall semester, universities have done that by using QR Codes. Here is an example, one of our friend at University of Illinois at Chicago saw a big QR code on notice board with a note “For Intern Application.”
An internship is a big feat of a student’s life. I am sure a huge number of students must have scanned this paper and a lot must have downloaded the QR code reader app just to scan this.
The QR code here serves as an Information recharge station. A traditional noticeboard with QR Codes can work wonders and can provide:
- Details of the job applications for “offline” browsing
- One can also check the application life cycle
- Additional vacant positions
Another classic example universities can implement is “Class schedule” via 2-D codes. One can argue that this information can be retrieved from the university website but do students really visit the university website frequently? The noticeboards are made for grabbing students’ attention. Today’s information hungry students carry smart phones and tablets for quick access to the same.
Imagine a scenario where a student can get today’s class schedules/room/professor info on his smart phone by simply pointing towards a QR code on the notice board of department building. You don’t have to change the QR code every other day but the information behind it can be changed dynamically.
Here is your quick electronic notice board using QR! (or should we say Queaar!)
If Mobile is a new doorway to the Internet, QR Codes are to Multi-Channel Marketing
URL : Desktop and QRL : Mobile
We at Queaar are very happy to introduce you all a new term : QRL (QR Code Locator)
We all know URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and the role it plays. If you don’t, here is a quick snippet from Wikipedia.
In computing, a Uniform Resource Locator or Universal Resource Locator (URL) is a character string that specifies where a known resource is available on the Internet and the mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is technically a type of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) but in many technical documents and verbal discussions URL is often used as a synonym for URI
URL is your traditional way of getting loads of information in a browser. Of course no one is saying that a mobile cannot/ should not/ would not open up the website pointed via a URL. It can. But it should not :)
After a lot of brainstorming, Queaar Team is introducing a cool name to the bridge from QR code to digital content on your mobile : A QRL.
So any content which is extracted out of a QR Code by the reader it a QRL. A QRL can (and not restricted to below)
+ Opens up a web page (hopefully this page is mobile intelligent)
+ Show a v-card
+ Prompt to download an app
+ Send an SMS
As you see, a QRL helps it’s users for a better and smoother real world to digital world connection.
So when you login and start using Queaar, and see “Create your first QRL”, we are telling you to create this awesome looking, rich & interactive data loaded, simple to use Mobile Site which does the magic for you and your consumers.
Happy QRL-ing!
QR code to a brand can be what platform no. 9 ¾ is to Harry Potter - A magical channel for advertisers to make consumers discover a brand.
How QR Codes can solve parking troubles?
At Queaar, we love to brainstorm on various everyday problems and come up with simple and elegant solutions.
This post will talk about how Queaar using QR Codes + Mobile can solve the problem of “Parking”. It’s not only the drivers who feel the pain around this, but also the authorities. Sure, levels are different!
Here are few slides which we have put together on how 2D codes can make the whole parking experience better.
Note: This presentation is not a business idea or a pitch. Instead of writing a length post we thought to make it more readable and so we put it in a presentation.
We will be more than happy to answer your questions or if you are looking for any specific details. Ask you questions in comments section or on twitter - @queaar
Infographics - The Rise of QR Codes
Queaar is excited to share the first infographic made by our Creative Team. We are also happy to let all our readers know that we will be bringing to you a fresh and new infographic every month. Stay tuned!
