Whenever I’m asked about QR Codes I usually end my response with “in Japan”. Try it yourself to discover the truth about QR Codes. Just add “in Japan” to any of these statements.
I’ve seen some great QR Code advertising ________.
Consumers will respond to a QR Code ad________.
Mobile phones already have the software needed to read QR Codes________.
Everyone knows what a QR Codes is________.
Now that I’ve established that QR Codes are a really cool thing… in Japan. Here’s a cool implementation from, you guessed it, Japan.
Teradadesign Architects are responsible for an innovative commercial building in the city of Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan, constructed with a QR Code facade. The QR Code resolves to a site which includes up to date shop information. Interestingly an unofficial iPhone application is available which allows the building to be viewed in real-time with an overlay of Twitter feed comments located via GPS tagging from inside the building. The video below shows what this looks like.
Check out the Chameleon Guitar, developed at the MIT Media Lab. They’ve made an effort to combine acoustic qualities and digital capabilities. Very cool. You can view the MIT Lab Cast video for an introduction to the concept, or jump over to Ars Electronica 2009 for more plus lots of other cool stuff. Or just go to http://www.thechameleonguitar.com
Ideally, you should never see a 404 error page, but if you do, I hope it will be something interesting or entertaining. The 404 error occurs when a page is not found on a website. It’s mostly likely not due to any one of the mysterious server or Internet glitches that we blame everything else on. It’s because the web site owner has a link to a page that isn’t there. Maybe it used to be, or maybe it’s just a hastily typed link that they never tested.
Smashing Magazine has a nice 404 design gallery they posted back in January and Web Design Resources has a gallery as well. Better still, go discover some of your own. Here’s a couple I’ve found.
Failure is an option, or , how you fail has options. 404 pages are there because shit happens. Shit you didn’t plan. So make it a memorable failure. Something you can be proud of. Something that doesn’t look like a failure. Alternately, make it not-broken, have the page redirect to your home page, or make it a search page. Smashing Magazine’s solution is to direct you to their 404 Gallery. Just don’t make it a broken, boring, oh my God I fucked up page.
If you are using Wordpress with a decent theme, you should be able to customize your own 404 template easily. Just go to Dashboard -> Appearance -> Editor -> 404 Template.
You can see my 404 page by clicking here, or trying some odd URL of your own like… http://mediarosa.com/wtf.
That’s right. Sex Positive. Positive in the sense that you are not going to be censored for linking to something – which we’ll assume to be responsible content – just because it implies or refers to sex.
Violet Blue, yes, you know who I’m talking about, has launched vb.ly so you can safely shorten your NSFW urls. There’s also an API for anyone who want’s to tinker with the service or integrate it into their website or application. There’s also rumor of a Wordpress plugin, but I haven’t found it yet. If you come across the plugin, let me know. Now, go out there and link to things like there was no tomorrow.
Three out of five Americans go online to influence the opinion of other people, and twice as many to socialize than to shop. I suppose that speaks a lot about the intent of folks participating online whether it’s Twitter, blog commenting, sharing with Digg or shopping on Amazon. So with that, the folks at Public Relations firm Ruder Finn bring us the Intent Index. Now we know why we do what we do and it’s all presented to us in a pretty Flash interface.
