Last week my wife and I had to go to the mall which is a very rare scenario. While my wife was quickly going from one store to another, I decided I would just chill out with our son. A very simple poster caught my eye in the window of a shoe store. with the word “Curious?” and a QR code.

I had a few minute to kill so I thought “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am curious”. I pulled out my phone, scanned the code, and proceeded to be shocked and appalled. Finally after about 10 seconds I saw part of the background load along with the main navigation. The QR code led the the brand’s website home page, not even remotely optimized for a mobile device.

Shock and disbelief.

If you are using a QR code, remember that it is being scanned and viewed by a mobile device which has limited screen space and limited bandwidth. It will take ages to load the large scrolling images at the top of you page. It kills the user experience and people expect for most of the page to be loaded in five seconds or less. I am not a very heavy mobile user so I had the patience to wait an extra five seconds, but that only showed me I would have to wait longer to even read anything on the page.

The execution killed the curiosity.

I didn’t wait for the website to load because I didn’t have time. My wife would be out again soon and we would be on our way so I simply closed the browser. The promotion did a great job of gaining my interest and attention, but it fell flat when it came to delivering on the curiosity it created. I don’t even know what brand it was.

That’s a pretty definite fail.

Learning from experience.

If you are planning on using a QR codes, make sure that the place you are leading your potential customers is an appropriate mobile experience. That may be the first impression your business makes on potential customers. If it’s a bad experience, it will be forgotten, assuming people even see anything.

Here are a couple things to keep in mind if you are planning on using QR Codes.

• Have a mobile page specifically for mobile users
• 75% of users say they will bounce after 5 seconds or less for a mobile site to load.
• Consider leading them to a social channel that is already optimized for mobile use
• Make sure to consider who your target audience is along with when and where are the best places to connect with them.
• Social Media use is extremely high on mobile devices, consider tying the page into your social media campaign

Make the experience suite the device and you will have a much more receptive audience to your message.