A minimal business card | Hacker News Reader

A minimal business card

2 pointsmelsam5 comments

3 quick questions:

1. how unique/cool/elegant/Apple'esque would a business card be if you strip away everything, except your name and a QR code? example: http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/6343/mincard.png

2. would you feel comfortable handing this out at conferences like sxsw & wwdc?

3. if someone gave one of these to you, would you bother scanning that QR code a few days later or just toss it? (assuming you forgot the context of your meeting)

Long story: I recently needed to print some new business cards before heading off to sxsw. My old ones were outdated in just 3 months (new startup, new google voice number, different title etc). As I was designing my new card I realized that the only static info on it is my name. Titles are pretentious and deceptive for startup types especially if you wear multiple hats. So I'm considering this idea of a "minimal card". All "dynamic" info is linked to an about.me/flavors.me page via the QR code.

good idea? thoughts?

Truthfully, I don't understand the point of having a QR code on your business card unless someone has developed an app that will dial/email/SMS whoever you're trying to reach with one button press (and if they have, someone send me a link).

I wouldn't bother scanning it after the initial scan. You get added to my contacts list, and when I need to contact you, I'll contact you. IF (and this isn't a very big if, given the environment of great and talented developers in the mobile app community) someone can make a smarter QR code scanner, then maybe I'd take putting a QR code on a business card a little more seriously.

It's an awful idea. It's too played out to be novel and it's completely nonfunctional. When someone hands you a card, they look at your name first to make sure they heard the introduction correctly, and then your title. Perhaps also your location. These convey information that can be important in the conversation. If a card is devoid of information you might as well just use Bump or a similar app and skip the card entirely. That's a stupid idea for another reason: pro-tip -- write notes about the person/conversation on the back of their card immediately after you finish talking to them. That way you can enter it into your CRM/PIM later and remember why you're doing it.

Funny, I have just been looking into having something similar created locally. I would have had my personal email and personal phone number on it. The QR code would go to my about.me or flavors.me profile, whichever I decided I liked better. That in turn would have links to projects, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Some may say the QR code is gimicky or pointless, but in my case I was going to have the cards to give out while I networked with the local tech and start-up community. So it fits and it is a small differentiator.

It would be great if when you scanned the QR code, your phone automatically opened the default "new contact" screen with your info filled in.

If the QR code simply links to a short URL, why not just print that URL in plaintext?

One of the problem with such a minimal designs is that "assuming you forgot the context of your meeting", the card itself provides no clues (and the "dynamic" info on the website might not match the context, if it really does change that often).

I met some guys recently who had exactly this printed on their biz card.

But then they also wrote a bunch of stuff on it...

It looked really lame: Here are pics of it: http://imgur.com/a/q6u0z

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