Year: 2026
Tools: Figma, Whimsical, Rive, Notion
Problem Statement
QR codes are now ubiquitous. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated their transition from being seen as “that strange square barcode thing” to becoming a part of our everyday infrastructure. Used for restaurant menus, event tickets, parking payments, vaccine passes, package tracking, and building access. The market for QR codes is projected to reach $35 billion by 2030, reflecting significant growth and innovation potential, which should inspire technology professionals and business owners to explore new developments. However, one key observation is that although QR codes have evolved into a primary interface, the actual user experience associated with them has not advanced at all.
When you scan a QR code on a smartphone, the camera recognizes it, and you receive a notification. By tapping on this notification, you are instantly directed to the URL embedded within the code. There’s no preview or verification step to confirm what you are about to open. This interaction model assumes that QR codes are trustworthy and that instant access is always desirable. While this made sense when QR codes were rare and primarily used for marketing campaigns, it is far less justifiable now that they are widely used for payments, identity verification, and access control.
The absence of a preview is not merely a minor user experience issue; it also poses a security vulnerability. Malicious QR codes can be placed over legitimate ones, and phishing attacks can disguise themselves as restaurant menus or parking payment systems. Even in non-malicious scenarios, there is no way to know whether the code you are scanning is expired or if it will lead you to a mobile-friendly page or prompt a file download. Essentially, you are scanning without visibility.
Context-Specific Previews
For Restaurants/Menus
The preview displays the restaurant’s name, hours, location, and, if available, a rating pulled from Google or Yelp. It also highlights a couple of featured menu items or today’s specials. The “Verified Source” indicator appears if the restaurant is the confirmed owner of that QR code. This preview provides the same information you would expect to see on the cover of a physical menu, giving you enough details to ensure you’re at the right place and that it’s legitimate, helping users feel more confident in their choices.
For Events and Tickets
Security verification becomes the top priority. When you scan a concert or festival ticket, the preview shows the event’s name, date and time, location, ticket type (General Admission, VIP, etc.), and verification status. If the ticket is from a platform like Eventbrite, this is indicated. Additionally, if the ticket is transferable or has an expiration time, that information is visible as well. You can immediately determine if the ticket is valid before attempting to use it for entry, which helps users feel secure and confident in the process.
For Delivery and Logistics
I began considering high-volume, occupation-specific use cases. For delivery drivers scanning 60 or more packages daily, speed and accuracy are crucial. The preview overlay displays the bill of lading number, sender and receiver information, package weight, and any special delivery instructions (such as back porch delivery, signature required, or time-sensitive needs). There are also visual indicators for notices or special handling. The preview remains on-screen just long enough to confirm you’ve selected the correct package from your truck, after which you can tap through to mark it as delivered or view full details, supporting efficiency and reducing errors.
Testing the concept across these different contexts revealed something important: we’re not just lacking preview functionality; we’re also missing the infrastructure to make previews truly useful.
Treating QR Codes as Files, Not Images
Currently, when you scan a restaurant menu QR code, you’re likely just accessing a URL that links to a PDF hosted on their website. The QR code itself is a static image, either a PNG or SVG that encodes a simple string of text. There’s no metadata, no structure, and no ability to update it after creation.
As I continued designing contextual previews, I realized that embedding structured data in QR codes can empower developers and stakeholders to create more dynamic, valuable solutions. A restaurant menu QR code should include information about the restaurant itself, not just a link. An event ticket should carry structured event data, and a shipping label should contain package details.
This shift in perspective led me to view QR codes less as images and more as documents.
When PDFs were introduced, they addressed a specific need: a file format that would display consistently across all devices, could package text and images together, and was easily shareable and printable. PDFs became an industry standard because they filled a real infrastructural gap.
QR codes serve a similar need in reverse: they act as a physical interface to digital content. As QR codes become more widespread and essential, we need better infrastructure to support them. We require a standardized method for creating, editing, managing, and encoding structured data within them, enabling industry leaders to define the future of this technology.
This is when I began considering a new file format, which I propose to call .qr. It wouldn’t merely be a PNG encoding a URL; it would be a file that includes the encoded data along with metadata: when it was created, who created it, what type of content it links to, when it expires, version history if it has been edited, and security signatures if it originates from a verified source.
This would enable several practical features:
A restaurant could set its menu QR code to expire at the end of the month when they update their menu, then revise it with new content.
An event organizer could modify a ticket QR code to direct attendees to a different location if the venue changes.
A retail company could track how many times its promotional QR codes have been scanned and from which locations.
Access controls could be implemented, allowing only certain team members to modify the QR code for a company’s trade show booth.
This approach mirrors the rationale that made version control standard for coding and collaborative editing the norm for documents. QR codes are becoming too significant to treat as disposable static images.
Building the Ecosystem
To make this concept work, you would need native apps across multiple platforms. I designed DotQR (a placeholder name for presentation) as both a consumer app and a platform with enterprise capabilities.
On mobile, DotQR serves as your personal QR hub. You can create new codes using templates for everyday use cases such as Wi-Fi network access, contact cards, website links, and event invitations. You can store codes that you’ve created or frequently use like the QR code for your home Wi-Fi, the parking app for your office garage, or the loyalty card for your favourite coffee shop. Everything is organized with labels and colour coding. The app also lets you edit your own codes, set expiration dates, and share them with others, making it adaptable to your needs.
The app features three main sections: Home (for your most-used codes), Create (to build new codes with guided templates), and Settings (for security and app preferences). When creating a new QR code, the app provides a preview of the scanning experience, including the overlay that appears when someone scans it. This means you are designing the entire interaction, not just generating a square.
On desktops, the app becomes even more powerful for enterprise use. For instance, you might create unique QR codes for every table in your restaurant, generate access badges for a 500-person conference, or develop a seasonal promotional campaign with codes that expire after three months. The desktop version provides features like batch creation, analytics on scan rates and locations, and integration with other tools. I created versions for both iOS/Android and Windows to demonstrate how this concept would function across platforms. The Windows version includes a sidebar navigation with a Dashboard that displays recent codes, along with functions for creating and uploading codes and detailed editing capabilities. When creating code for a restaurant menu, you can view a live preview of the scanning experience, including the contextual overlay.
How It All Connects
To make this concept work, you would need native apps across multiple platforms. I designed DotQR (a placeholder name for presentation) as both a consumer app and a platform with enterprise capabilities.
On mobile, DotQR serves as your personal QR hub. You can create new codes using templates for everyday use cases such as Wi-Fi network access, contact cards, website links, and event invitations. You can store codes that you’ve created or frequently use like the QR code for your home Wi-Fi, the parking app for your office garage, or the loyalty card for your favourite coffee shop. Everything is organized with labels and colour coding. The app also lets you edit your own codes, set expiration dates, and share them with others, making it adaptable to your needs.
The app features three main sections: Home (for your most-used codes), Create (to build new codes with guided templates), and Settings (for security and app preferences). When creating a new QR code, the app provides a preview of the scanning experience, including the overlay that appears when someone scans it. This means you are designing the entire interaction, not just generating a square.
On desktops, the app becomes even more powerful for enterprise use. For instance, you might create unique QR codes for every table in your restaurant, generate access badges for a 500-person conference, or develop a seasonal promotional campaign with codes that expire after three months. The desktop version provides features like batch creation, analytics on scan rates and locations, and integration with other tools. I created versions for both iOS/Android and Windows to demonstrate how this concept would function across platforms. The Windows version includes a sidebar navigation with a Dashboard that displays recent codes, along with functions for creating and uploading codes and detailed editing capabilities. When creating code for a restaurant menu, you can view a live preview of the scanning experience, including the contextual overlay.
Why This Matters Now
The $35 billion market projection reflects more than just growth; it signifies that QR codes are becoming an essential part of our infrastructure. When something is transformed into infrastructure for payments, access control, identity verification, and critical logistics, it must be secure, reliable, and well-designed.
Currently, QR codes are mostly unmanaged. There is no standardization for their creation, no built-in security verification, no way to update them after deployment, and no platform-level tools for managing them at scale. We are treating a critical interface technology as if it were still a novelty.
The work I’m proposing includes contextual previews, standardized file formats, and native management tools, all aimed at giving QR codes the infrastructure they need to function as the ubiquitous interface technology they are becoming. While these enhancements are necessary, stakeholders will need clarity on the implementation challenges, costs, and resource commitments involved to evaluate feasibility effectively.
This approach is speculative design, yet it is grounded in real issues that are becoming more urgent as adoption grows. Companies like Apple or Google could implement the preview overlay through a software update. Standardizing the .qr format would require broader efforts, similar to how PDF became an open standard, demonstrating that successful standardization efforts are achievable and beneficial. The suggested apps illustrate what a comprehensive QR management ecosystem could look like.
The opportunity lies in the fact that we are still early in QR’s evolution as an infrastructure component, so these systemic changes remain achievable. Acting now can position us as leaders before fragmentation increases and standards become harder to establish. DotQR proposes what could happen if we take QR codes seriously as designed objects and build the systems they deserve, inspiring industry leaders to envision a more integrated future.
Brief Stats
Market Growth
QR code market: $13.04B (2025) → $28.64B (2030) - Mordor Intelligence
Market Growth
QR payment market: $8.07B (2020) → $35.07B (2030) at 16.1% CAGR - Allied Market Research
Allied Market Research
Market Growth
QR code market: $13.04B (2025) → $28.64B (2030) - Mordor Intelligence
Market Growth
QR code market: $13.04B (2025) → $28.64B (2030) - Mordor Intelligence
Currently, when you scan a restaurant menu QR code, you’re likely just accessing a URL that links to a PDF hosted on their website. The QR code itself is a static image, either a PNG or SVG that encodes a simple string of text. There’s no metadata, no structure, and no ability to update it after creation.
As I continued designing contextual previews, I realized that embedding structured data in QR codes can empower developers and stakeholders to create more dynamic, valuable solutions. A restaurant menu QR code should include information about the restaurant itself, not just a link. An event ticket should carry structured event data, and a shipping label should contain package details.
This shift in perspective led me to view QR codes less as images and more as documents.
When PDFs were introduced, they addressed a specific need: a file format that would display consistently across all devices, could package text and images together, and was easily shareable and printable. PDFs became an industry standard because they filled a real infrastructural gap.
QR codes serve a similar need in reverse: they act as a physical interface to digital content. As QR codes become more widespread and essential, we need better infrastructure to support them. We require a standardized method for creating, editing, managing, and encoding structured data within them, enabling industry leaders to define the future of this technology.
This is when I began considering a new file format, which I propose to call .qr. It wouldn’t merely be a PNG encoding a URL; it would be a file that includes the encoded data along with metadata: when it was created, who created it, what type of content it links to, when it expires, version history if it has been edited, and security signatures if it originates from a verified source.
This would enable several practical features:
A restaurant could set its menu QR code to expire at the end of the month when they update their menu, then revise it with new content.
An event organizer could modify a ticket QR code to direct attendees to a different location if the venue changes.
A retail company could track how many times its promotional QR codes have been scanned and from which locations.
Access controls could be implemented, allowing only certain team members to modify the QR code for a company’s trade show booth.
This approach mirrors the rationale that made version control standard for coding and collaborative editing the norm for documents. QR codes are becoming too significant to treat as disposable static images.