Which code where
| Job | Code type | Static or dynamic | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Object information | URL | Dynamic | Object label, case rail |
| Room audio guide | URL | Dynamic | Room entrance, floor plan |
| Accessible content | URL | Dynamic | Room entrance, welcome desk |
| Translations | URL | Dynamic | Behind the object or room code |
| Feedback | URL | Dynamic | Exit, café, comments desk |
| Membership and donations | URL | Dynamic | Exit, shop, welcome desk |
Object labels
A label has room for eighty words. The object has a story worth eight hundred, a conservation photo, a curator’s voice and a translation. A code on the label carries the visitor to all of that, on their own phone, at their own pace.
Choose the objects. A code on every label trains visitors to ignore them. Twenty objects with a real story, each with its own dynamic code, and a room code for the rest, is the pattern that gets scanned. Dynamic means the audio can be re-recorded, the text corrected and a language added without reprinting the label or reopening the case. The batch generator makes a set from your object list.
Audio guides
A browser-based audio guide behind a code at each room’s entrance replaces the handset queue and the app download. The visitor scans once at the door, the room’s track starts, and the same page lists the objects with their own tracks. Keep the audio short, under two minutes per stop, and offer a transcript on the same page.
Put the room code on the floor plan too, so a visitor who skipped a room can go back.
Accessibility
A code can be the most accessible thing in a gallery or the least, depending on the page behind it. Behind it, offer large print, audio description, easy-read and British Sign Language video, and make the page work with a screen reader. In front of it, the code needs a printed number and a plain label for visitors who cannot or will not scan. The accessibility guide covers heights, tactile markers and what to put on the page.
Mount codes at a height a wheelchair user can reach and a standing visitor can still read: about 1.2 m for a wall label, on the front rail of a case rather than the top.
Getting the label right
- Size: 2.5 to 3 cm for a label read at 30 cm. Room-entrance codes read from 1 to 2 m, so 10 to 15 cm. Check with the size calculator.
- Dim light: matte black on matte white, nothing else. Coloured codes and tinted backgrounds lose the contrast the phone needs in low light. The colour guide explains the numbers.
- No gloss. Spotlights on a glossy label produce a white glare that hides modules. Matte laminate or direct print on matte board.
- Glass: a code inside a case is read through glass and reflection. Put it on the outside rail where you can.
- Margin: at least four modules of clear white around the code, away from the label text.
- Number and instruction: “Scan for more, or enter 23 in the guide” beside every code.
Do this
A 3 cm level M matte black-on-white code on the front rail of the case at 1.2 m, object number 23 and 'Scan for audio and full text' beside it, pointing at a dynamic link with a transcript.
Not this
A 1.5 cm code in the exhibition's dark teal on a glossy black label inside the case under a spotlight, no number, pointing at an app store page.
In practice
Walk the exhibition on the evening before opening with the lights at their display setting and scan every code with an older phone. Any code that takes more than three seconds gets reprinted a size up.
Privacy note
Dynamic codes record how many scans, roughly when and from what kind of device. That tells you which objects hold attention and which rooms are skipped, which is valuable for the next hang. It does not identify a visitor, and the pages behind the codes should not ask for an account or a name. Say so on the feedback page.
Try it yourself
Paste the object numbers and their page links, one per line, and the batch generator returns a labelled sheet at label size. Make them dynamic in QR Studio so the text and audio can change without a reprint.