Breakthrough

August 21, 2024

It's time for optimism.

It's time for a brighter future.

It's time to imagine new ways to help people, communities, and organizations to reach their fullest potential.

That's because I just finished developing a critical component of my Attendant Support Solution!

The QR Card Generator

It starts with an image, let's say an elephant.

Add a dozen other animals. You've met many of them before.

Add four colored borders.

That's 13 x 4 = 52 (just like a deck of cards).

Add another 4 cards (two jokers and two special cards) to make it 56 cards to a deck.

For eight decks, that's 56 x 8 = 448 cards.

The QR Card Generator creates a separate QR Code for each individual card.

That's 448 QR Codes.

And if you generate more decks, you'll get more QR Codes.

100 decks? 44,800 QR Codes.

1000 decks? 448,000 QR Codes.

You get the idea.

A group of colorful rectangular labels Description automatically
generated with medium
confidence

QR Card Generator in action

Where do all those QR Codes go?

Here's the fun part -- all of the QR Codes point to the same place!

When you scan the code, your phone translates the QR Code into a website URL.

That URL brings you to my new website (still under construction), built in Power Pages, a component of Microsoft Power Platform that enables powerful low-code development.

The QR Code also contains a unique ID and a secret code. (Since anyone can share a picture of the card, it's not super-secure, but good enough for what I have in mind.)

With a unique ID, each individual card points to a different page.

But it would be rather unwieldy to come up with 52 or 448 or 44,800 different content elements, one for each card.

18 Rules, 18 Articles

That's why I've started with simple rules.

IF elephant card THEN show the elephant page.
IF orange border THEN add orange accents to the page.
IF gradient border THEN include flashing, blinking banners AND a "Buy Now" button.

For a basic deck, that's 13 animals + 1 joker + 4 borders = 18 rules.

That's manageable enough, even for a small team.

Each rule is associated with a short piece of custom content.

For example, here's an idea for a Convention City Seattle deck, featuring Tamara's Animals, for attendants, concierge desks, and greeters:

A screenshot of a computer Description automatically
generated

Animal assignments and border promotions for Convention City

Each animal points to an article written about a different part of town.

Each color border adds a different promotional message.

Green Alligator = Pike Pine + Transportation.
Orange Dolphin = Waterfront + International.
Purple Turtle = Capitol Hill + Nightlife
Turquoise Frog = Sound Transit + Events

At any point, you can rewrite the articles, so people can see the latest content, no matter when the card was printed and distributed.

You can also change the rules.

If you run out of turtles, send in the squirrels!

Through the Deck Manager app, you'll be able to reprogram what shows up when someone scans any type of card. So instead of squirrels leading to First Hill, they can be trained to go to Capitol Hill.

Or, using the Attendant app, you can reprogram an individual card. Add a personalized note, even after you've given the card away! The next time your guest scans the card, they'll see the updated page.

But that's advanced.

The basics are powerful enough.

That's why I've also developed a streamlined version of the QR Card generator that works from a simple Excel file.

I can program each card to point directly to whatever sites I want, no detour through Power Pages.

That makes it super easy to share specific links with people -- without having to trade phone numbers or email addresses.

And if you're so inclined, feel free to copy these animals to share with your own network.

A cartoon of a donkey Description automatically
generated