Waze, a community-based navigation app used by millions of
people, is the most recent product I have fallen in love with due to its simple
driving solution, community ethos and clean UI. As a second year business school
student at UCLA, I constantly drive through Los Angeles for meetings and
events. The city is unique in that car commuters go through all of the stages
of grief when it comes to L.A. traffic: denial, anger, bargaining, depression,
and acceptance. I spend an average of 60 minutes a day driving through city
traffic. Waze helps me maximize the value of my day by pinpointing the quickest
route from point A to point B. Without Waze, I would likely spend an extra
15-20 minutes a day driving around the city.
Waze’s user-centered design features are one of my favorite
aspects of the product as it maximizes my situational awareness while driving.
Furthermore, the interface is frictionless enough that real-time decision-making
is barely affected. The navigation map is legible while also providing the
right balance of data to process (highway speed, roadblocks, distance to
destination / next turn), voice activation works extremely well and the icons are
visible in almost all lighting conditions.
The community network is one of my favorite features of the
app as users work together to report road hazards, construction, and police
speed traps. On several occasions while driving on the highway, I have been
immediately rerouted to take advantage of an empty side street, cutting my
commute by 5 minutes. It is like receiving a personal heads up from
acquaintances on the road. The community reporting feature is also
controversial, as the National Sheriff’s Association believes that it puts
police officers in harms way by reporting their location. Waze insists that
this feature makes for safer driving conditions, as the company believes that
people tend to drive safer when they know they are in close proximity to law
enforcement.