Waze is a community-based navigation app for drivers. It's one of the most popular apps in the App Store, consistently ranking between #20 and #30 in the top free apps category. It's also the #2 free navigation app in the US store and many others worldwide.

In June 2013, Google acquired Waze. When the project to redesign the entire client application kicked off a year later, Waze already boasted a vast number of users who relied on the app daily.

Despite this success, a significant portion of the features offered within Waze's client remained undiscovered by most users. Over time, the entire interface became outdated and could no longer integrate upcoming features in a cohesive and logical manner. This necessitated a complete overhaul of the user experience, requiring the company to rebuild it from the ground up.

I played a pivotal role throughout the entire redesign process. I assembled and led a team of three dedicated UX/UI designers under the guidance of our Design Lead. After several months of iterative design, my two colleagues transitioned to focus solely on Waze Carpool, another major service being developed concurrently. This shift left the Design Lead and me responsible for the majority of the remaining redesign work, which we managed until the September 2016 launch.

Throughout this ambitious project, I collaborated with three Project Managers to translate concepts and ideas into concrete features and designs that would enhance the user experience for millions.

I also co-led a team of five Software Engineers and one UX Engineer, overseeing the delivery of the final product for both Android and iOS platforms. This involved creating design mockups, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and design specifications.

Prior to release, I worked closely with the QA team to identify and resolve interface and behavior bugs, providing solutions for any potential edge cases. I spearheaded the design of all marketing content, including materials for app stores, social media, and press releases.

As I mentioned earlier, Waze was already popular well before the idea of a complete redesign arose. Knowing this, the natural question is: why change something that works well?

The first concrete reason for such a significant change was to create a uniform and cohesive visual identity for the entire experience. This involved clearing out cluttered and piecemeal features that had been added to the interface over more than five years of previous iterations. By doing so, we were able to wipe the slate clean of any UI elements that detracted from Waze's core design principles.

The second reason was to emphasize key features already existing in the Waze client but unable to reach their full potential due to poor implementation within the user experience.

Finally, the most critical reason was to prepare for the future of Waze. We aimed for a long-term and holistic vision by creating a more flexible and reusable interface that would serve designers when working on new features. This fundamental change would allow us to design a more stable and consistent environment, facilitating the implementation of future large features into the client. (For example, our new service, Waze Carpool, which was also a large-scale product and UX effort implemented concurrently.)

One of the major accomplishments of this redesign was eliminating the main menu, which had grown and shifted constantly over the years to promote different features. This approach quickly became cumbersome rather than user-friendly and failed to serve the app's core purpose: simply navigating while driving. The primary "driving" functionality (the most used feature) was buried among less important functionalities, all of which converged on this same main menu simply because it offered the easiest location to add new features to the app.

After experimenting with various solutions, we made the bold decision to replace the main menu with the actual navigation list, including commute addresses, history, and favorites. This significant structural change provided a central anchor for the app, offering an easy and quick way to begin navigation to any destination. It also necessitated finding the right places to promote the other features that previously resided in the main menu, ensuring they were exposed in the proper context. This successful move resulted in a simpler and more user-friendly app, all without compromising any KPIs.

The main, recurring complaint from Waze users centered on the overall driving experience. While consistently satisfied with the accuracy of Waze's ETA and traffic data, users found the way this information was displayed problematic. The sheer amount of layered information and data presented during a drive could make the interface appear excessively busy and cluttered. In essence, Waze's greatest strength became its Achilles' heel. Our primary goal was to address these issues without compromising or hiding any currently displayed information. We saw significant opportunities for improvement in both safety and readability.

These report category colors are now implemented consistently across all relevant screens and views that display real-time user data. This system follows users throughout their journey, ensuring consistent information delivery. Whether it's viewing map pins, the drive summary screen's "event on the road" bar, alert notifications for upcoming hazards, or even the report menu, the color coding provides a clear and unified experience.

The map itself underwent significant improvements, both aesthetically and technically. To achieve our goal of simplifying and decluttering the map, we removed all unnecessary lines from streets and minor roads. Additionally, we enhanced the overall color scheme for greater uniformity and improved the hierarchy of various labels. From a technical standpoint, we collaborated closely with the map engineering team to optimize the rendering of map segments, particularly the display of distant streets through enhanced anti-aliasing processing.

Many of the most significant and impactful changes in this redesign involved restructuring the app's architecture to present relevant information in its proper context. Having eliminated the main menu, we encountered a new challenge: how to manage functionalities that control or are linked to navigation itself.

In pre-4.0 versions of Waze, navigation-related actions were scattered across two different screens. Some functionalities resided within the "ETA popup," displayed at the beginning of each navigation session and accessible during the session by tapping the bottom ETA component. The remaining functionalities were housed within the main menu, offering different actions depending on whether the user was driving or not. To make matters worse, some features even appeared in both locations!

This redundancy stemmed from the fact that most users weren't aware they could revisit the ETA popup during a drive. To emphasize key features needed before and during navigation (like alternative routes), the ability to access the main menu remained crucial.

To address this complex navigation issue, we opted to consolidate all navigation-related functionalities into a single, unified view. This component becomes accessible only upon initiating navigation and automatically hides upon ending the driving session (whether the user reaches their destination or intentionally stops). This approach streamlines the user experience by establishing a clear location for all navigation features. Over time, users will develop an intuitive understanding and access these features through this dedicated component, eliminating the need to search for them elsewhere.

The main challenge involved consolidating all these features into a single, designated location. We opted for a drawer-style view to avoid obscuring the entire screen and maintain the user's navigation context. By overlaying this view on the map, we reinforced the idea of instant accessibility during navigation. However, this approach presented a trade-off: cramming all navigation information and actions into a single view that occupied only 60% of the screen space. We needed to design a compact interface that utilized large text and buttons for easy driving-friendly interaction. This task required extensive iteration and testing to achieve an interface that effectively addressed both constraints.

Educating users about the existence of this in-navigation menu was crucial. To facilitate discovery, we implemented a multi-step visual cue system for its appearance. First, a spinner appears at the bottom of the screen near the (now grayed-out) menu button. Then, the drawer expands from the bottom while the spinner remains visible. Most actions are initially disabled (as the app calculates the best route) but are displayed, allowing users to see the available options. Once the optimal route is found, the spinner disappears, revealing the actual estimated arrival time (ETA), distance, and travel time. All options become fully functional at this point. Finally, tapping "Go" closes the drawer, with the driving information remaining visible at the bottom of the screen. A large blue arrow serves as an additional permanent cue for future access to the menu.

A primary motivation for the Waze client's redesign was to streamline the user interface (UI). Over the five years leading up to version 4.0, the Waze client underwent rapid growth and evolution. Each new feature implementation introduced inconsistencies within the UI, making it less user-friendly.

Consequently, designing new components became a significant challenge. Designers needed to balance adherence to evolving industry standards and design patterns with maintaining a connection to Waze's established visual identity, which was becoming dated. The comprehensive redesign provided the solution: it standardized existing elements within the app and created a foundation for future features.

Throughout the design process, we established standards for a range of elements, from foundational building blocks to commonly used components. Our core objective was to create a design system that would empower future designers: a platform they could leverage, build upon, and extend internally. To achieve this goal, we meticulously redesigned all interface components and elements to ensure optimal scalability and reusability. Undeniably, building a brand new product while simultaneously developing a comprehensive design system presented a significant challenge, especially considering the project's scale.

Another crucial aspect of the redesign involved elevating the overall user experience through strategic motion design. We meticulously refined and polished each screen and component transition. Our primary goal was to establish a consistent and authentic motion language that would permeate the entire app. These transitions needed to embody the brand's essence and playful personality while maintaining a minimalist aesthetic to avoid distracting users while driving. To achieve this, we designed a comprehensive library of motion transitions using industry-standard motion software like After Effects.

To gain a clear understanding of the desired motion behaviors, I created detailed and high-fidelity motion design mockups using industry-standard software like Adobe After Effects. Following several rounds of experimentation to achieve the ideal interactions, I collaborated closely with our in-house UX engineer to ensure seamless integration of these behaviors into the core client application.

To facilitate clear communication with the engineering team and support quality assurance (QA) efforts, I created comprehensive design specifications. This documentation included detailed graphic assets and breakdowns of each interface component's behavior. Tailored for both iOS and Android platforms, these design documents provided all the information necessary for building, testing, and verifying every Waze client feature.

While no new features were introduced in this version of Waze, a significant overhaul of the core user experience (UX) flows and funnels was undertaken. The app's structural redesign necessitated a substantial revision of interactions. For example, functionalities like "adding a stop" or sending an ETA to another user required a complete revamp to align with the logic established for the main menu and the new in-navigation drawer.

As the project progressed, usability testing became crucial to assess user response to the major interface changes implemented in the new version. Since critical user journeys underwent significant redesign, we aimed to ensure these changes wouldn't negatively impact usability. To achieve this, we developed detailed, realistic prototypes and conducted multiple user testing sessions.

Waze version 4.0 was launched for iOS users on October 19, 2015. The rollout was a resounding success, a significant accomplishment considering the project's scale and complexity. The Android version followed five months later due to our prioritization of the new Carpool service, which debuted earlier that year exclusively on Android.

In preparation for the new version's release, a crucial aspect of the PR strategy was generating excitement through a "coming soon" teaser. This teaser would offer a glimpse of the new design and be delivered through two channels: a dedicated "coming soon" inbox within the client app itself and social media platforms like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. To further amplify the PR efforts, I created a range of additional materials, including banners, animated gifs, App store assets, short explanatory videos...

Following the successful launch day, we gradually observed the impact of our efforts on app store reviews, particularly on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, confirming the success of the redesign initiative. Throughout the year following the redesign project, my team and I continued to iterate and refine the visual design, while also integrating a series of new features and improvements.

Article, The Verge, October 19, 2015
Article, Tech Crunch, October 19, 2015
Article, Apple Insider, October 19, 2015
Article, USA Today, October 25, 2015
Article, BGR, October 19, 2015