Dinosaurs No More: QR Codes for Multilingual Content

Just when you thought QR codes had gone the way of the dinosaur, they’re everywhere. But actually, that’s not a fair analogy, as they had never really made it big in the US. In fact, TechCrunch referred to them as a “laughing stock” back in 2015. Fast-forward a few years and one global pandemic, and it seems they’re here to stay.

And no one’s laughing about them. What they are doing is leveraging them.

From menus and product packaging to museum exhibits and even Super Bowl ads (not to mention tattoos!) – organizations of all types are leveraging the flexibility of QR codes to connect customers and community members with content. And one type of content that lends itself particularly well to this platform? Translation content.

Let’s say you’re a tourist attraction, cultural center or museum, and you’re looking to increase accessibility and inclusion to better engage your diverse audience. You realize that it’s time to translate your signage, visitor maps, labels, and interactive exhibits, but your physical space doesn’t allow for that flexibility. Hello, QR codes!

Project focus: Chicago Botanic Garden

The Chicago Botanic Garden values inclusivity and accessibility at every level, which includes language access for Spanish-speaking visitors. However, with an upcoming exhibition already developed with limited space for redesign, they needed a creative solution for translated content: QR codes. To help them accomplish this goal, we visited their galleries to determine the best placement of the QR codes throughout their space and created branded landing pages where visitors can view a Spanish version of each panel. In addition, with QR codes the Chicago Botanic Garden is able to easily track user analytics to improve visitor experience.

Aside from space flexibility, QR codes also allow for flexibility in terms of the content itself that print materials just don’t offer. Catch a typo? Get feedback from users that you want to incorporate? Realize that you want to include supplemental information? If you need to make real-time updates to your content, no problem. Once it’s updated and translated, it can be easily updated digitally. And certainly if you decide to add additional languages to the mix down the road, that can easily be done with the same codes.

Whether your focus is local, national or global, connecting effectively and authentically with your target audience requires that you speak their language – both in a literal and a figurative sense. On a literal level, that means ensuring that your translation is linguistically accurate, consistent, proofread and polished. On a figurative level, it means knowing your audience, paying attention to cultural nuance, and ensuring that your messaging resonates with them. But connecting with your multilingual audience also means meeting them where they are. With multilingual QR code content, you have the flexibility to do that by bringing your message directly to their hands.

QR Code Solutions

Multilingual Connections’ QR code translation solutions integrate multilingual digital content and allow you to extend your message in multiple languages.

Contact us to discuss our fully integrated QR code solutions for your multilingual needs.