QR Codes for Science Centers and Museums

In the past, science centers were a place for visitors to gaze and marvel at new inventions and achievements. Now they are an educational resource with millions of visitors. Science centers allow visitors to witness the history of science and to undertake their own experiments on hands on with interactive exhibits. This brings education to life for learners young and old!

What more could science centers achieve if they implement QR codes?

QR codes are a great way to get across a lot of information in a small amount of space. Here are 6 ways that you can use QR codes in a science centre to really improve the visitor experience:

1. When the queues are going out the door, a well placed QR code on posters along the queue line can take visitors straight to the “buy tickets online” page of your website, thereby decreasing their waiting time and freeing up staff.
2. If your centre has hands on shows or a planetarium, you could have QR codes on the ticket, which, when scanned, will send a reminder to your visitors phone 10 minutes before the show is due to start.
3. Information boards around exhibits are great, but can only go into a small amount of detail. A small QR code could take the visitor to a webpage where they could read more.
4. Science centres are visited by people of all ages and abilities. QR codes on each exhibit could be coloured. Visitors need only scan their colour QR code to get information tailored to them. For example :- scan the green code for basic information, orange for more detailed or purple for the very complex!
5. Many science centres have artefacts that are historical and no longer in use. A QR code can be used to link to a video of the item being used.
6. My favourite use of QR codes in science centres- AR (augmented reality)! With augmented reality a visitor can see the item through their device, in the local surroundings. Using this you could “see” the item. Imagine a heart pumping blood, a life size trebuchet, or a tiger in the grass!

Of course behind the scenes there is a lot of organisation that goes on too, and QR codes can help in here as well! Below are just a few ideas from our clients, but if you know your business well you will probably think of a few more!

1. When an item is on loan to another museum, you can put a QR code in its place which would list where the item is and when it is expected back.
2. Every item can be catalogued using QR codes.
3. Use QR codes to gather staff feedback anonymously.