QR Codes: Shortcuts for the real world
Friends, customers, and investors often refer to us as “that QR code company.” That’s not surprising—QR codes feature prominently on our website and in how we explain what FORMATION does. But the QR code is just the tip of the iceberg. What’s really interesting is what happens when you scan one. Why do we believe this matters? What problems does it solve? And what makes our approach new and valuable?
A Brief History
QR codes were invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara, an engineer at the Japanese company Denso (a subsidiary of Toyota). Initially developed to track automotive parts during manufacturing, QR codes have since found applications in various industries worldwide. For a deeper insight into the invention and evolution of QR codes, you can watch an interview with Masahiro Hara here:
Real-World UX
Working with digital tools is already hard. On mobile phones, it can be frustrating—tiny screens, tiny buttons, and endless typing. Now imagine you’re a technician, cleaner, delivery person, or construction worker. You don’t have a desk, or even a company email address. But you do have a smartphone in your pocket.
QR codes provide the perfect shortcut: take out your phone, point it at a code, and something useful opens instantly.
Bridging Physical & Digital
A QR code is just a link — like a button for the real world. But what matters is what’s behind that button. When you scan a FORMATION QR code, you don’t just land on a generic website. You unlock a mini web page tailored to the object or location in front of you.
Such a page can include all sorts of tools and information:
- Overview and general information
- Rich media: photos, videos, voice memos
- Cleaning checklists
- Spec sheets and documentation
- Maintenance history and audit logs
- Contact details for the person responsible
- Forms to report issues or update statuses
- Links to related tools, maps, objects, or websites
- Anything else you’d expect from a helpful web page — the sky’s the limit!
These aren’t just web pages—they’re contextual tools, instantly accessible to anyone with a phone. No login. No app to install. No training required. Access can be configured, and pages can be tailored to individual users when needed.
Deep Links to Things
Linking the real world with the digital world is what FORMATION does. Our system makes it easy for organizations to create, manage, and update digital twins—contextual web pages tied to physical things in their environment: rooms, doors, machines, products, equipment, you name it. Each QR code becomes a gateway to relevant, up-to-date information and actions connected to a specific object in the real world.
By bridging the gap between physical things and their digital twins, we help frontline teams stay informed, solve problems faster, and keep processes running smoothly.
No more guesswork. No more hunting for manuals or spreadsheets. Just scan, and go.
Tracking: Every Scan Is Also a Location Update
One of the things that FORMATION does—as a side effect of simply using it to access information—is build up a detailed picture of what happens where and when. Every time someone scans a QR code, we register an interaction with a specific object, in a specific place, at a specific moment. This gives organizations passive, automatic insights into their operations—without asking anyone to fill in forms or report manually.
This kind of hybrid tracking is powerful, and you can read more about it on our in-depth page here.
The magic is: tracking isn’t extra work. It’s a byproduct of connecting physical things to their digital twins. Once those twins exist, each interaction—whether it’s a technician pulling up a maintenance log, or a cleaner checking off a task—adds to a real-time understanding of what’s going on in your environment.
And when FORMATION is integrated with IoT systems, sensors, and other data sources, the effect compounds. Machine statuses, usage patterns, temperature logs, door access records—these all feed into the digital twin. Workers don’t need dashboards or training—they just scan and instantly get the right info, or the next step. The complexity stays in the background; the simplicity stays in the user’s hands.