Today, I present to you three very different QR codes and their statistics. These are all taken from the Metro newspaper on Tuesday January 10th.

Wowcher

First up is "Wowcher", a big quarter page advert on page 28.

Wowcher's statistics show a consistently good performance with QR codes. Between 30 - 80 scans per day, and 87 yesterday.

Sparks

Next is a QR code for "Sparks Marathon" tucked away on page 50. Sad to say, Sparks' statistics are very poor. Just 16 scans. This is the first time this particular QR code has run. I wonder if its location (next to the TV listings, rather than by a news story) has something to do with its poor performance?

BlueSquare

Finally, on the bottom of page 63 is a QR code for BlueSquare's iPhone app. The BlueSquare statistics show a regular scan rate of 10 - 20 per day. Although yesterday they got 28.

Notes

It's hard to assess just how successful these codes are. The numbers are low, no doubt about that. As I mentioned in my interview for Econsultancy, a company needs to perform proper A|B testing to see how many calls, email, or website visits they would have got without a QR code.

• These were the only three QR codes in the Metro using bit.ly - so they are the only ones I can get statistics for.
• I have assumed that each code is unique to the paper it is printed in. That is, the same advert in the Guardian should have a different code.
• There are no handset statistics provided with bit.ly - unlike goo.gl.
• The statistics have been taken from the day after the adverts were published. The Metro tends to hang around on trains long after the morning rush.
• I have no connection with any of the companies shown here.

If you would like a bespoke QR consultation, contact me.

On the surface, it's quite a simple idea - yet Metro have needlessly complicated it.

The Process

The simplest process would be

1. Scan Code
2. Send Email

That's not what Metro have done. By using Scanlife as an intermediary, they change the process to

1. Scan Code
2. Connect to web
3. Get redirected
4. Get redirected again
5. Load web page
6. Click on link

Advantages and Disadvantages

Now, there are advantages to this approach.

• Metrics on how many people have scanned the code.
• ...
• ...errr...

Metrics are useful - but consider the disadvantages.

• Need for mobile coverage. That means everyone in the London Underground can't send an email until they're above ground - by which time they may have forgotten what they wanted to say.
• Requirement for Scanlife to stay up. While I have no doubt they have impressive uptime, at some point they will go down and so will Metro's ability to receive emails.
• Payments to Scanlife may escalate over time.
• Lack of design control over the page.

KISS

As with everything, simplicity is the key to success. Here's the simplest way for Metro to get email from their readers.

All this says is "mailto:mail@ukmetro.co.uk". Pure and simple. No coverage needed - the phone will open up its email client and send when the user is back in coverage.

If you wanted tracking, you could use "mailto:qrmail@ukmetro.co.uk".

Conclusions

It's great to see QR codes getting more mainstream traction - but we need to be wary of two things. Firstly, salesmen will try to bamboozle you with their proprietary solutions. Secondly, keep things as simple as possible to ensure widespread usage.

While I don't doubt that Metro gets some value from Scanlife, surely that's offset by the inability of a million tube passengers to send an email?

The Metro is a London-based UK newspaper national newspaper which is distributed in 33 cities across the UK. Around a year ago, I reviewed the Metro's mobile website. It wass a perfectly fine mobile site and I'm pleased to see that over the last 12 months it has undergone substantial improvements. You can visit it at http://metro.mobi/

This morning, I spotted this prominent QR code - placed on page 2 of the paper.

Photo by Benjamin Welby

So far, so good. There are a couple of flaws in the implementation which I'll come to. But first, the biggie.

Despite having a mobile site - guess what happens when you scan the QR code....?

Yes, that's right! Rather than pointing directly to metro.mobi, they're pointing to their main website metro.co.uk. Worse than that, the main website doesn't do any user-agent sniffing. Their front-end servers (or CDN) ought to detect mobile traffic and automatically redirect mobile devices to the mobile-friendly website.

Most phones will find the main site hard to navigate, flash adverts won't render, and the large data size will make downloading the page slow and potentially expensive.

Using Bit.ly

The main problem with this QR code is that it doesn't point to a mobile friendly site - but there are a few other gotchas.

Yes, you can use bit.ly to generate QR codes, but I wouldn't recommend it.

• Anyone - even your competitors - can see the statistics of your campaign. Visit http://bit.ly/gM06V2+ to see how many clicks the QR code has received. Where possible, you should use your own, private QR generating service.
• The short URLs are ugly! "gM06V2" is neither pretty nor memorable. Worse, a user typically has no idea what's behind that random string of characters and may be put off simply because they don't know where they will be sent. If you must use bit.ly - be sure to edit the code. For example, I've just created http://bit.ly/MetroMobile which looks nicer and points to the correct destination.
• What happens if the bit.ly services goes down? Your customers won't be able to access your services.
• What happens if Libya - the owners of .ly - decide to shut down bit.ly?
• Finally, do you need a URL shortner? http://metro.mobi is 17 characters, the URL used in Metro's QR code is http://bit.ly/gM06V2?r=qr - 25 characters!

I'm really pleased that the Metro is embracing QR codes. Much like the early days of URLs, we're bound to see a few mistakes - let's hope the kinks get straightened out before the public lose faith in these little magic squares.

Update

Just got this in from Martin Ashplant, the Head of Content at Metro.co.uk...

We are in the process of developing our offering so readers can choose whether they want to visit our website, which has richer content, or our mobile site. This choice will be available within a month.

We are comfortable with bit.ly for this particular campaign as it is our data and we are not concerned about it being public. However if we were to run such a campaign for a client we would of course make sure that the data remained private.

Insert a pound in the slot, press the button for The Times, aim your handheld's IrDA at the blinking light and ZAP! All the latest news for you to read on your train journey.

It's just as well that my idea never got out of the paper prototyping stage.  While BlueTooth has supplanted Infrared in the majority of modern phones, it is network provided data which is now king.

The Daily Show did a wonderful interview with the New York Times. The interviewer asked the editor...

Can you show me one thing in this paper that happened today?

And, of course, the answer is "no".

I remember on that dreadful day in September, barely a few hours had gone by before the first "extra" editions of the Evening Standard had pictures and analysis.

A few hours? That feels like a life-time. Especially when it comes to breaking and developing news.  There is a huge lag between a reporter typing away, the presses rolling, and the delivery drivers depositing the paper on the streets.

The Internet totally eliminates that lag.  A journalist can clatter words onto a laptop and with a push of a button have them broadcast to the world via their website.

The Web is Too Slow

I simply can't wait until I'm back at my desk. Nor can I be bothered to boot my laptop, find some Wifi, find some power, load FireFox, etc...

Flip open my phone, click news, read. That's what I want. And that's what I can get.  For breaking news, the mobile Internet is the only real solution.

What's Available

I present here a quick overview of the most popular British Newspapers' mobile sites.  I've also included the New York Times for international flavour and Reuters for the agency view.

List of mobile newspapers - spot the favicon

I don't intend to comment on the politics of the papers, nor their choice of stories  - I'm going to concentrate on the first impression only. Later I'll do a full review of their capabilities.

The first thing to spot is the use of the Favicon. Favicons are the little icons which are used to differentiate your site from others. Think of it like a visual bookmark.  Bizarrely, half of the UK papers don't use a Favicon.  That means that in the bookmarks list they are likely to be overlooked.

A special mention for Reuters' Favicon (highlighted) - It's an indistinct yellow splodge.  I've highlighted it because it's hard to see yellow against a grey background.

FT.com - http://m.ft.com/🔗

m.FT.com

Traditionally printed on pink paper, the mobile site seeks to replicate the distinctive hue of its paper counter part.  From a branding perspective, this instantly tells the user that they are on familiar ground.  It doesn't affect the readability - so why not.

Showing the time next to a story instantly tells the reader how "fresh" the content is.  Confusingly, there's no date displayed.

Search is always important to readers; allowing them to get straight to the content they want.  Not having any navigation is a hindrance to users quickly finding their way around.  While users will scroll to get to navigation - placing it at the top is an easy way to let them choose where to go next.

While advertising is a necessary evil, this advert is hard to read and jars with the rest of the page.  The layout of the whole page seems very heavy on the dead-space.

Guardian - http://m.guardian.co.uk/🔗

m.Guardian.co.uk

I've already reviewed the Guardian - but to my mind it still stands out as one of the best examples of mobile news sites.  Compact and efficient layout, navigation, teaser images, and the date all contribute to a well designed first impression.

The Independent - http://m.independent.co.uk/🔗

m.independent.co.uk

Dispensing with navigation has allowed The Independent to cram a few more stories above the fold.  Although their teaser text hasn't been optimised for the size of the screen leaving some rather jarring dead-space.

The colouring is rather plain, but fits in well with the paper's brand.  Colouring the background space given over to the advert is an interesting design choice.  It simultaneously draws attention to the advert while keeping it conceptually separate from the rest of the site.

Metro - http://metro.mobi/🔗

metro.mobi

The Metro is technically a newspaper.  The mobile site reflects the paper version - cheap, cheerful, primary colours and a blonde on the front page.  The total dominance of the image detracts from the rather good navigation choices - split by category.  The masthead is perhaps a bit large - but the promise of the image will probably be enough to get 50% of the population to scroll down.

It's interesting to notice that there are no stories or direct links to stories to be seen.

New York Times - http://mobile.nytimes.com/🔗

mobile.nytimes.com

They "Gray Lady" lives up to its reputation with a very plain site which, nevertheless, packs in a lot of information.

Using an anchor link to get to the navigation is a smart choice.  It reduces clutter at the top while keeping navigation options available.  With intelligent use of space they've also crammed in a search box.  The date and time give the viewer the reassurance that the news they are reading is not stale.

Unlike the other sites, the NYT places images on right.  While this is distinctive, readers of English are accustomed to a flow of information from left to right.  I wonder if this style helps or hinders readability.

The link to a dedicated application is a smart touch and will probably upsell readers.  Unfortunatley it comes at the expense of looking like it is part of the headline.   A less subtle change of font, colour, or placement would help here.

Reuters - http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/mobile/uk/🔗

uk.mobile.reuters.com

Reuters is not a newspaper. It is austere and feature poor. Deliberately so - it caters to those who want the news without any fuss. That said, they do make poor use of the space available; only the lower third contains any real content.  It makes a nice change not to have an advert at the very top of the page - but the heaps of space aren't really necessary.

Shifting the masthead and date on to one line, then removing some extraneous space would provide a better first impression by bringing more news to the forefront.

The Sun - http://thesun.mobi/🔗

thesun.mobi

The Sun is Britain's biggest selling paper.  Unlike the others, they totally eschew advertising at the top of their site.

The page is strongly branded and very picture heavy - that's likely to negatively impact download times. Navigation is very clear but it is missing search. They have deliberately taken the paper's style - the ripped edges of the image, for example - and applied it directly to the mobile.  That's not always a great idea, but it certainly makes it stand out from the crowd.

Times - http://timesmobile.mobi/🔗

timesmobile.mobi

I've reviewed the Time before.  I find the logo unnecessarily large.  It's great that they've got the date and time on there - but giving them their own line feels like an inefficient use of space.

Essentially, over half the screen is wasted here.

Mirror - http://m.mirror.co.uk/🔗

m.mirror.co.uk

The Mirror's mobile site feels dominated by its advert - yet, impressively, they still manage to keep 3 stories above the fold.

There's no navigation or search.  Indeed, it's as simple as you can be without the barren space typified by Reuters.

While offering a good amount of news - this really gives the impression of being Lidl's site, with a bit of news thrown in.  Adverts should be carefully designed not to swamp the pages on which they live.

Telegraph - http://m.telegraph.co.uk/🔗

m.telegraph.co.uk

Alphabetically last, The Telegraph is a rather mixed bunch.  The only images are an advert and its logo.  The navigation and use of date are well integrated. Despite this, they can only fit two stories above the fold.

There are no images to entice the user - although the text rich screen does convey a depth of purpose that the others may be missing.

Conclusion

It's important to remember that users will scroll. The idea of putting important assets "above the fold" is, at best, a distraction. But there's no denying that the first impression really does count.

It's heartening to know that the UK's mobile (mainstream) news market is so vibrant and healthy. While they differ in functionality and content - these sites show that providing news on the mobile is no longer a niche activity.

Mobile news sites come in a wide range of shapes and sizes - demonstrating that mobile needn't be static and simplified.

These sites - despite their problems - are evidence that mobile news, for many people, is the news.