Dear Waze,

First, let me complement you on a great product. I use it almost daily.
More importantly, you got a more meaningful compliment from Google on your great job.

As a user of your product, please allow me some user feedback which I would hope you may implement in your product.

Until now, I used Waze on different mobile phones.
Recently I purchased a new car with a 7'' screen.
After having used it, please allow me some customer feedback and suggestions for implementation relating to the way you display information on larger screens.

Seems to me that you do not make and use of the heavy increased real estate (size of screen) you have at your disposal in most in-car display systems with 7-9'' screens.
At the top of the screen is a black bar which is utilized by the car manufacturer for different displays such as WiFi icons etc. and the time.
This space is not available for Waze. No worries.

However, the remaining space is not well used at all.
Below the black car bar not utilizable by Waze you put another black bar with your direction arrow (<-), distance (120m) and road name (461 מערב).
But most of the black bar is unused and just wastes the heights of your map display.
But worse than that, the size of your icons is exactly the same small size as on much smaller mobile phone displays, thus making it difficult to read the information at a glimpse (while driving).
See Figure 1.

Original

Figure 1: Original Display

I therefore suggest a different organization of the screen as shown in Figure 2.
The main screen should be divided approximately 1/3, 2/3.
The right part with the 2/3 display should be with your Moving Map and the centered arrow showing the present location.
Please note that in the present layout, the map display is wider. However since anyway the present location is always centered on the display, there is no benefit in the a little wider map display.
The left part with the 1/3 display should be the re-arranged Info Window.
The bottom bar with the Time to arrival (32min), EAT – Estimated Arrival Time (18:04), Distance to destination (14km) should remain as is.

Division of Screen Display

Figure 2: New division of Screen Display

Please refer to Figure 3.
The Info Window should include (from top to bottom, left to right):
Significantly increased size indicator of upcoming turn (Left/Right Arrow) etc.
Significantly increased size Street Name and Street Number.
Indicator of upcoming turn (to allow selection of appropriate lane after the immediately upcoming turn). [NEW]
Soft button () to select the Overview on the Map, displaying the complete trip from start to destination with present location (˄). [NEW]
Speed indicator (as in your regular display).

Division of Screen Display and Indicators

Figure 3: Division of Screen Display and Indicators

Following (Figure 4) please find a very rough sketch of the suggested Display (based on your actual screen).
Please compare to the original screen display above (Figure 1).

Suggested Display Layout

Figure 4: New Layout of Screen and Indicators

May I suggest you forward this mail and suggestion to the appropriate member in your Management / R&D / Product Manager / User Interface Design / Usability Study.

I hope you will find this suggestion useful to improve your great product.

I am at your disposal for any clarification you might wish for and would be pleased to hear from you on the follow-up on this matter.

Best regards.

Michel

Michel Bodenheimer, e-mail: michelb@netvision.net.il

Tel: (+972)-3-732 64 64, Mobile: (+972)-54-77 12 789

Skype: michel_bodenheimer
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