Hi all,

One of the most common complaints waze users have about its User Interface is the "annoying", "dangerous", "hindering" speed camera pop-ups. The function they provide is one of the most sought out by GPS users, but it's one of the most poorly implemented in the app as of version 3.7.2.

That is because these pop-ups take out a relevant portion of the screen, making it very difficult for the user to see the plotted route and not to miss exits and turns. So much so that I can understand if someone cringes to the sound of "speed trap reported ahead" if they know there's an important or specially complicated connection coming.

There is no reason to block most of the screen with the "speed trap reported ahead" pop-up, specially when it appears over the route traced, in both landscape or portrait mode.

The obvious solution to this "deal breaking" annoyance is to move the information to another part of the UI. And here is where the ETA central display comes in handy.

This heroic part of the UI already hosts a variety of useful information, like when you just open the app and it greets you with "tips", scrolls information about navigation, even asks when you want to resume it. Yet, it just sits there, heroically, most of the time, displaying the ETA in hours, time to go and distance to go. But it really gets lackluster when the annoying "speed trap reported ahead" comes into play. When the pop up invades the screen, the last thing the user wants to know is the ETA, the distance to the destination or how long it will take. At that moment, all s/he cares is for the information behind on the pop-up or, more importantly, the one behind it, which is now inaccessible, specially if that complicated right-hander is this one or the next, 10 feet ahead.

At that moment, the most valuable piece of screen real estate is the ETA display. It would just look cleaner and sleeker. "Swipe left if it's 'Not There'"... Imagine the possibilities!

There's still room for misunderstanding, though. For example, a far less common pop up message is when Waze calculates a better route for you. When that occurs, you see this pop up:
This is NOT how it should be done with speed trap pop ups. That still hinders map visibility. The speed trap information should be displayed inside the grayed ETA sticker thing.

From what we all can see, this space holds enormous versatility and should be more explored. But it's not a matter of adding or removing a feature with the speed trap pop up. That one is seen by most wazers as poorly executed and outright dangerous, possibly the most annoying feature in the entire app.

The following images show how underestimated the prime screen real estate is sub-utilized. A series of sleek animations and transitions would enrich the Waze experience to the point of it becoming the unanimously best rated app, solving about 139% of the cons that users complain about - I'm talking, of course, about the berated speed trap pop up.
A sleeker solution would be for the ETA ticker's background to calmly glow shades of red, with a nice camera icon and speed trap info shown in the foreground, delivering an overall posher look, keeping the user calm and attentive, not driving him out of control and making him furious at the app and missing navigation landmarks on the map, specially on the plotted route, which would remain, in this case, undisturbed and its view unblocked at all times.

I hope one day that's implemented on Waze. The world will be a better place then.

Thank you.