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While working up some revisions to the River Bends trail map for the trail head kiosk and I realized that having a QR code on it which links solely to a PDF of the same map might be a good idea. This would allow one to scan the code and download the map to a phone and keep an offline copy; exactly how one would want an electronic copy while out and about.
I think this would nicely augment the standard large map placed at the trail head and the typical paper map distribution box. One would just have to ensure that the link stays live for the life of the map. It might be a better idea to have the QR code on a separate smaller poster that just says “Scan Me to Download The Trail Map”, as it’d be cheaper / easier to update should the need arise.
This is probably the first productive use I’ve had for a QR code.
(The image above is a draft / mockup and links here to the current [but soon to be out of date] version of the map. Final implementation will definitely need more polish.)
Hey man, do you regularly work on maps? I work in GIS and make maps all day throughout the week. I love the idea of providing the QR code on maps at trailheads. Did you think of that on your own, or were you motivated by something you saw? I had a QR code form my blog as my avatar once, but I eventually thought it was just praying on people’s curiosity to drive more traffic to my site and that is just lame. QR codes to take a map of where you are going with you while you go there, that is awesome!
forgivenick: Interesting. No, the only map making I’ve done recently is the River Bends map, and that I just did up in Illustrator. I’m not sure where I got the QR code idea, but it started with putting the MMBA website on a printed map, as many advertisements do. Then I got to thinking that it’d be better to have the link go to the map. Then I realized it’d be a potential solution for a map distribution box and the potential for that to be vandalized. So, the next result was QR code at the trail head, and I then decided to make it a separate sign all together so that the URL could be updated without replacing the whole of the map.