The long-awaited necessity of an interface redesign for the popular Google-owned navigation app “Waze” has finally been met. The 4.0 version of the app brings a considerable overhaul to the way its more than 50 million users will interact with their in-traffic life-saver (though still sticking to the cartoonish look), because the congested, several popping menus approach of previous versions has been replaced with a one-touch (or as few touches as possible) philosophy in tune with the current design trends of minimalism, cleanliness and efficiency.
The changes that came with the new Waze app interface makeover are as follows.
The button for signalling events in traffic is now orange which makes it stand out more. The traffic alerts that appear at the top of the screen are also orange, for the same reason. And when pressing the orange button to create a traffic alert, it now opens into a full-screen of round easy to manipulate button for each type of alert.
The main menu button is now smaller, white and to the bottom left of the screen, in a different line than the bigger orange alert button, which brings the focus of the user’s view to the map and alert button and pop-down alerts, which are the most important in traffic. The map itself is also less cluttered.
There’s a new contacts tab which allows sending directions to you your contacts or your ETA to some location. Awesome!
You can tap a menu in the bottom to get access to other features like alternate routes or “add a stop”, as well as a shortcut to sending your ETA to a friend or family member.
With the 4.0 version, another great new feature is that you can sync your Calendar to the app, allowing you to be reminded, through alerts, of when you have to leave, based on traffic conditions! No more stress over unexpected heavy traffic (for a given hour) to mess up your time before you actually have to leave. Now you can focus on doing other things with that time, certain that Waze will both alert you that you have an appointment (in case you forgot) and also that if you leave at the indicated hour, you’ll make it on time, despite changes in traffic.
Apart from these, there is also a claimed improvement in battery life, which can only please users, as Waze does tend to chug a fair amount of battery.
Unfortunately, the new version is only available for iOS for now. But the company claims that this discrepancy will be very short, as an Android version is already underway.
