What do you do when someone has no NFC phone?
Print the address on the card. It costs nothing at print time, serves everyone the tap misses, and turns a failure in front of a prospect into an ordinary exchange. A card with no printed fallback is a card that occasionally does nothing at all.
Who the fallback is for
People with no NFC hardware, which is a small and real minority.
People with an older supported iPhone, where an application has to be opened first and nobody will do that in a meeting.
People whose phone has NFC switched off, whose case has a metal plate, or whose battery is flat.
And people who simply do not want to tap an object handed to them by a stranger, which is a reasonable position and not one to argue with.
Together that is more than a rounding error, and none of them is served by a card that only taps.
The printed address
Short, readable and on your own domain. Someone may type it, so a long path with parameters is not a fallback.
Print it at a size that can be read without effort, because the person reading it may be doing so precisely because something else failed.
Use the same address the chip holds, so both routes lead to the same place and there is nothing to keep in step.
This single element does most of the work, and it is the one most often left off in favour of a clean design.
A printed code as well
A code works on any phone with a camera, including every phone that has no NFC, and it needs no typing.
It is also visible, which the chip is not. Someone who sees a code knows the card does something, and someone holding a blank card does not.
The objection is aesthetic, and it is a real objection: a code is a visual element you have to design around rather than hide.
A reasonable compromise is a small code on the reverse with the printed address, keeping the front for your name.
Designing it in
Decide the fallback before the design rather than after, or it will be squeezed into whatever space is left.
Test the printed address by asking someone to type it from the card at arm's length. If they get it wrong, it is too long or too small.
Keep the front simple and put the machinery on the back. A card that looks like a card and works like a card is the goal.
And treat the fallback as the primary route for a moment during design. If the card would still work with the chip removed, the fallback is good enough.
Frequently asked questions
Does a printed code make the card look cheap?
It is a design constraint rather than a verdict. A small code on the reverse keeps the front clean and serves everyone the tap misses.
Is a printed address enough on its own?
It covers everyone provided it is short and readable. A code additionally serves people who will not type anything.
Should the printed address differ from the chip?
No. Use the same one, so both routes lead to the same place and nothing has to be kept in step.
What if my card design has no room?
Then the design has not accounted for the fallback. Decide it first, because a card that only taps fails silently for a real minority.