The mobile app I’m most disappointed with might surprise you
I was on a panel in Denver last week that was hosted by North Highland (those guys rock, btw!), and I was asked the question, “What is one of the worst mobile app experiences today?”
I didn’t have to think long before the answer came out, Waze!
I know, I know, everyone loves Waze. And I still love the promise of Waze, but can we all be honest, the user experience is terrible. Just awful.
How many little popup icons do I need on my screen? Half the time I can’t even see where I’m supposed to turn because its telling me there are 18 people on that corner that are also using Waze. I don’t care, I just want to know how to get where I’m going! And the ads are starting to get rather annoying.
Also, and this is an aside, but seriously can we get an option to say, “Don’t give me left turns across major roads with no traffic light.” I can see why this path is completely clear, because everyone with eyes is smart enough to know not to try to turn left here!
I mostly use Google Maps for directions, but when I do use Waze its for two reasons (and maybe someone will tell me these two reasons are available via Google Maps):
1. I can quickly pull down from the top of my iPhone screen and click the option, “Home” or “Work”, in the Waze widget, and it immediately pulls up the directions. That’s pretty handy. I can also tell Siri, “Take me home,” but I can’t rely on Aple Maps yet.
2. When I head home, I can easily click a button to send my wife my ETA, which updates in real time along my route.
If it wasn’t for those two things, I’d use Google Maps exclusively, as Google employees have told me that all the data that Waze has is now factored in to Google Maps (Google owns Waze). And the Google Maps UI is far better than Waze IMHO.
Agree. And sometimes I suspect Waze is sending me around just to make me think I’m skirting traffic and going faster. Sometimes the direct route is fastest even if there is congestion.
While it has a long way to go, Mapkin is a pretty neat solution to some of these, particularly the left hand turn issue! https://www.psfk.com/2015/09/navigation-system-will-guide-you-to-your-destination-like-a-local.html
“Also, and this is an aside, but seriously can we get an option to say, “Don’t give me left turns across major roads with no traffic light.” I can see why this path is completely clear, because everyone with eyes is smart enough to know not to try to turn left here!”
YES! This is one of the things I don’t like the most about Waze, BUT, I still prefer it to Google Maps. I find it’s easier to switch routes or that it does a better job re-routing if traffic is bad than Google Maps.
I don’t mind the pop-ups so much, because I typically don’t look at the screen while I’m driving – I’m just listening for what’s next. If I’m in an area I really don’t know, I’ll probably look at the screen here and there for mileage checks to the next action.
I’ve stopped using Google Maps, and only use Waze. I didn’t like it when it first came out (J used it 3+ years ago and we didn’t like it). Just this weekend I was encouraging him to give it another try because it’s improved a lot since then.
You can set home and work in google maps! You can also star frequent locations so they come up faster in searches. (If I type S – it gives me Strongbox West). https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/3273402?hl=en
Ooooooo I love waze and use it every single….. time I take a trip over a couple hours long. I don’t think waze is an urban answer. I rarely need a map program near home or in my day to day but the traffic wrecks and police information on a long trip is great.
If I’m in an urban area, I’ve bought a dedicated large screen gps unit that beats my phone and my in dash unit all day long. I just use waze for what it’s good for… that 12 hours between Chicago and Atlanta, that 10 hours to Miami or sometimes Washington to atlanta. It would be a severely over priced app 8f it had a price. Although the benefits to me this last summer while we drove all up and down the east coast and all the trips to Washington and back, I would have given up a premium price for it.
All the icons are a little busy but once you are put of the big fancy City, waze is a nice tool.
YES. Also, please don’t navigate around a traffic light and then ask me to cross a major road without one. It can’t be that much faster for me to have to wait 10 minutes to cross North Ave.
[…] this week I blasted Waze, calling it the most disappointing app experience I knew of. Apparently, I’m not the only one that feels that way, because Waze had just done a major […]