A code at every spot, a story behind it, and nothing else to install or hand out. Below: how to set one up — and the mistakes you can skip.
A QR tour is a series of places with a code at each one. Somebody scans that code with their phone camera and gets the story you put there: text, a photo, a video, a recording or a question. Then they walk on to the next.
The appeal is in what is not involved: no app to install, no equipment to hand out, and no signs to have printed the moment something changes.
First decide your route and the number of stops. Four to eight usually works best; above that some people drop off.
Fill in the content per stop. Keep it short — half a screen is still readable standing up, a whole page is not.
Print the codes and put them up. A plain sheet of paper in a plastic sleeve does the job fine; you only need to invest in durable material once the tour stays.
Walk it once yourself, all the way. That sounds trivial, but it is the step where you notice that a code in the sun is unreadable or that stop three makes more sense after four.
A code works well when there is something physical to stick it on. If there is not, a step can also open based on location, with a PIN you hand out yourself, at a set time, or simply by tapping it.
In practice you combine them: QR at the objects indoors, location for the outdoor spots where nothing hangs.
Codes hung too low, so people have to stoop. Codes behind glass, where the reflection fights the scan. And too much text per stop, so people stop reading halfway.
A QR code does not have to be big, by the way: a five-centimetre square scans fine at arm’s length.
Set up your stops, print the codes and put them up. In your house style, in any language.