The barcodes have been designed to help spread useful information about the upcoming event.
Keeping with the trend of the very first campus information system in China that is based on QR codes, students attending that country’s Xiamen University have come up with a special smartphone barcode for sharing helpful tips to assist participants in the upcoming Marathon.
The barcodes were chosen because they are already widely recognized across the campus.
These two dimensional smartphone friendly barcodes have been implemented throughout the university’s campus in order to provide students with access to a helpful information system. The QR codes are designed to be readily recognizable so that the smartphone carrying students can obtain the additional information that they need, when they need it.
The QR codes that were developed by the students provide the public with tips about the marathon.
The specific students in question included a team of 4 female Journalism & Communication College students from Xiamen University. The team calls themselves “Green Shoots” and they launched the public QR codes publicity campaign in order to give marathon runners who are not professionals some tips that will help them to prevent issues along the way. Common problems among marathon runners include cramps, dizziness, and even vomiting.
These symptoms are more common among non-professional runners, as they don’t always have the knowledge and tips to which the professionals have access. The QR codes will allow these runners to learn some of these points so that they will have a more successful and enjoyable marathon.
The campaign involved postcards that had the QR codes printed onto them. They were affixed to trees in the Siming District’s Haiwan Park. This allowed smartphone users in the public to be able to scan the QR codes in order to obtain the URLs they needed to visit the website with the marathon running tip information.
One of the Green Shoots team members said that “We hope the Marathon is a happy and healthy sport without any injuries or deaths.” The QR codes have been designed for the Xiamen annual marathon race that will be held in January 2013.
