blog.

I like most people have read the countless amounts of predictions for 2012, most, if not all, mention how mobile is going to make a large impact on the future of online. I wrote a blog article last year saying that sites should consider mobile to complement desktop development. This year companies will see that they need to evolve their web presence to incorporate mobile or be missed by a large number of visitors. Visitors will spend less time, visit fewer pages and bounce more from sites they cannot view through mobile devices.

Smartphone and iPhone use in the UK is growing at a huge rate almost on a daily basis – I saw a figure this week that over 6m iOS devices were registered on Christmas Day, imagine the figure for Android devices!

People are also coming round to the idea of tablets; many were sceptical if there was a marketplace for such a device. I was one of these…until I got my iPad. I hardly use my laptop now.

Another big change, maybe not to web development, but to the way people interact with online is going to be smart TV’s. They’ve been around for a while, but this year it’s going to enter the mainstream. With the Olympics, Euro 2012 and the Diamond Jubilee retailers are going to be slashing prices and pushing us all to buy that new 50” TV. There have been some interesting developments this week from the CES conference...talk of a Google TV, Apple TV set and an Angry Birds app! I have a TiVo box from Virgin and I can now watch YouTube videos, catch up on missed programs or radio shows through the iPlayer, I could even view photos on Facebook or post updates to Twitter – all through my TV.

Online is being integrated into our lives on a daily basis and 2012 will bring with it many changes – some of which could be game changers whether we are users, web developers or designers……interesting times ahead for us all!

QR codes have been in use over the last few years, but are they a passing trend or do they have ability to become a marketing tool for the next decade?

It still remains to be seen the effectiveness of a QR code campaign. Recently it feels like marketers are adopting a policy of ‘stick a QR code on it’. A recent Econsultancy survey conducted online using TolunaQuick found that only 31% of UK consumers knew what QR codes were or what they are for, and just 19% had scanned one on their mobiles. I also recently saw a billboard advert on the side of a building with a large QR code 100 metres from the ground – not exactly an ideal place for someone to scan it.

I have however seen some really intuitive uses of QR codes in the news recently. eBay have set up a pop up virtual shop in London where you scan a QR code to make an instant purchase, Dominoes have been using QR codes on their menus for a while now to both incentivise and also push users to their mobile apps and sites.

The news this week that John Lewis has set up a virtual shop in Brighton. All of the retailer's ‘top 30 things to buy for Christmas’ are included in a window display at a branch of Waitrose. This is to promote the ‘click and collect' option John Lewis is currently offering. I’d imagine that if this uptake of major brands and retailers continues, QR codes will continue to be used. It could be the marketing tool that bridges the gap between traditional shopping and eCommerce. Who knows it could be the future of retailing – smaller shops which carry no stock and only display QR codes??