QR vs Barcode vs Custom Code

Question

Scenario

We must identify persons and also associate objects with them. This is for a very large cerebral palsy center for children that provides various services, some in different buildings (there are 6 of them, though all within a 4 block radius).

The kids are transported to (and from) the center by various private services, and there is a lot of confusion about where and when the therapies take place (made worse by the pandemic, as professionals are constantly canceling shifts). Depending on the day, time, and the varying degrees of severity of the children's condition, the therapies are conducted at one of 6 locations, which also causes traffic chaos in these four blocks.

Proposed solution

To avoid this, we have developed a digital identification system with a very simple app where drivers can simply scan a code and get information about the exact location and time the children need to be picked up. We think this solution has a lot of scalability for further subsets of solutions, not only for drivers, but also parents and therapists.

Since the information is not sensitive and no one is going to hack it, the format of the code is not particularly important to us. We came up with 3 possible formats: QR, barcode or a custom code that would allow us to be more "playful", like a QR, but with glyphs automatically generated from a library (see a pretty basic example below)

The question

Are there any special considerations as to why we should prefer one method or the other? My team prefers the QR, because it is standardized, I prefer the custom solution because ... well, because it's custom and gives us esthetic and emotional design options. The health center prefers the barcode, but they do not really care as long as it works.

So is there something special to consider, or am I missing something? Or is there another method we should consider that works better or combines the best of these methods?

What are the considerations when dealing with different digital identification systems?

Answer 1

You can add quite a bit of visualization to your QR codes, see for example https://github.com/x-hw/amazing-qr

Some examples of that page:

If the QR code will be shown on a screen you can even use an animated qr code

Since your developers want to use a QR code, and you want to be able to add some playfulness to it, I think in this way both parties can be happy.

Answer 2

I prefer the custom solution because ... well, because it's custom and gives us aesthetic and emotional design options

If this is your graphical solution and your collaborators prefer a practical solution, why not unify both? Good graphic designers love to find graphic obstacles as a creative starting point.

More examples here

My personal opinion is that a scannable code should be understood as such in the first instance, a custom scannable symbol does not offer an immediate interpretation, as it has been mentioned in one of the answers.

Answer 3

Let's look at each of your options in-depth.

Barcode

^Pros
✓ Well-established technology. Can be used with many types of hardware.
✓ Familiar; recognizable.
✓ Requires minimal image processing.

^Cons
× Could possibly feel slightly "cold" or "dehumanizing" to be assigned a barcode (barcodes are mostly found on products being bought and sold).
× Not easy to visually distinguish one barcode from the next.

QR Code

^Pros
✓ Well-established technology. Accessible; reader is commonly built-in to mobile device's operating systems.
✓ Not as familiar as barcodes, but becoming more common in recent years.
✓ Could give off a "flashy high tech" impression (even though they're an old technology also, consumer adoption and mobile device integration is still relatively new).
✓ QR codes have less of a metallic, factory feel than barcodes, and are used more often as a simple shortcut to get further data.
✓ Can hold much more data than a barcode.
✓ Has mechanisms for error correction, to help damaged or obscured codes still read correctly (thanks anjama)

^Cons
× Not easy to visually distinguish one QR code from the next.

Custom glyphs

^Pros
✓ Very easy to visually distinguish one glyph from the next.
✓ Provides a warmer, more unique and sincere feel for the user.

^Cons
× Not an established or standardized format.
× Not immediately recognizable as a code to be scanned.
× Would require a completely custom implementation, which may not be as reliable as devices' standard, inbuilt scanning tech.
× May distract from the purpose of the code.
× Users may want to change their glyph which could require additional customer support, or further features to support user customizations (e.g. My glyph is a banana, but I'm allergic to bananas...).

Conclusion

Surely I may have missed a few points worth mentioning (which I'd be happy to edit in as appropriate), but I'd strongly recommend the QR code for your purposes. I think the barcode evokes a much too cold and sterile image, especially when dealing with a vulnerable population in a setting where emotions may already be particularly sensitive. The custom glyph could turn out to be a nice feature, but it would take much more effort to fully develop. A QR code is a widely-adopted format, can hold more data if your feature requirements grow or change, and has fairly good support built into mobile device's operating systems.

Answer 4

As your team (and other commentators here) concluded, I would go for the QR code.

Most Pros and Cons regarding QR codes have been already mentioned here, but one relevant detail hasn't been shared here yet.

You can actually use the error correction feature of QR codes to put custom graphics inside of your code - the highest setting of QR code error correction can allow for up to 30% of the code data areas to be unrecognizeable, e.g. with a custom image overlayed in the center.

Please note, that you might be compromising a little bit on compatibility with some readers, if they don't support that error correction setting. Additionally, this will increase the amount of data, the QR code carries - you might have to reserve more space for the QR code, if you are printing them (e.g. onto some sort of ID cards).

Below I attached an example QR code, generated on https://www.qrcode-monkey.com/ (not affiliated with them in any way), that points to ux.stackexchange.com and has a custom graphic (in this case: a "share" icon) in it's center.

This way, you are able to combine the standardized QR code (and eliminate the need for custom scanning solutions) with playful graphics.

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Answer 5

This might not give you an answer directly but some more to think about.

Where are the codes being placed? Is it a sticker? Is it shown digitally on a screen? How big will it be? Can it easily be damaged? How do you replace it?

I've designed a warehousing system where we also had to identify objects. We ended up using barcodes as they are the most robust to damage. However from our research we found QR codes can be scanned from further away.

Another thing to consider is that you probably don't want to put the actual data into the code, once printed you can't change it or you will have to replace the physical code. It's easier to just put a unique URL into the code so an appointment can be amended without replacing the code itself.

Answer 6

It is a good idea to look at history and see what was done then to learn lessons from the past.

I strongly urge you to NOT use barcodes or bland QR codes for identification or categorization of disabled children or other minorities. There is some unfortunate history behind both of these.

Barcodes are essentially just a number and often come with a number, and there have been some REALLY unfortunate cases in history of minorities being literally numbered as a form of control and dehumanization by oppressive regimes, like Nazi Germany.

QR codes are currently being used by China to identify and mark houses where minorities live as part of their campaign to oppress the Uygur population.

Both of these situations really are something you don't really want to be associated with as a provider of care for disabled children.

Answer 7

What about barcode plus custom image? This way you have both standards compilance and visual appeal.

Example:

Answer 8

You should use the system that works best in the specific environment in which it will be used, and each option you've presented have different strengths and weaknesses.

You mention:

To avoid this, we have developed a digital identification system with a very simple app where drivers can simply scan a code and get information about the exact location and time the children need to be picked up.

My reading of this implies that users will need to scan the code using your proprietary app, that users will already have installed.

In that case, your custom approach (or a conventional barcode) is somewhat sensible, because there's really no way for users to be confused about how to interact with the code when they see it. The conventional barcode has the benefit of checksumming and is very, very easy to design integrations for, but it looks somewhat unsightly in practice (and resolution can pose a problem when it comes to scanning with an optical device like a phone).

A QR code has the benefit of being able to encode much more data and having dramatically higher tolerance to damage, low resolution or low light. Instead of encoding just the ID as you mention, you could encode something like my-app:location/1234, which would allow scanning from the device's camera app (launching your app seamlessly if it's installed), but the experience is relatively broken for people who attempt to scan it but don't have the app installed.

If your app is designed for a single platform, you might consider each platform's native approach for this. Apple's is called App Clips, which have their own custom scannable codes designed for this kind of purpose (triggering a little native app experience from the real world). Android's equivalent is called Google Play Instant (although it doesn't have its own dedicated code format, so this ends up being more or less the same as the QR code with custom protocol solution described above).

Alternatively, you might prefer to use an off-the-shelf 2D barcode format (to benefit from ease of implementation and robustness improvements) but one that isn't generally associated with other purposes/apps (e.g. Data Matrix or DotCode). There are even colour barcodes that are very high density but won't be commonly confused with conventional QR codes, like (the now defunct) Microsoft Tag or the more modern JAB Code.

Answer 9

On https://www.qrcodesgenerators.com you can create fancy QR codes that stands out. Best regards, Jarvis