Hi Everyone,
Shirli did not refer to the Client Beta Program (centercode), so I would like to add my perspective on that.
I am joining the party quite late. I only got aware of this thread yesterday.
This is because in the past I was also faced with the frustration that Iain expressed. I have been through this cycle many times - getting disappointed by Waze, complaining, getting promises for better communication, and getting disappointed over and over again. Until I've decided that my involvement is not worth the frustration. I have quit being a CM and a community leader, I have left the forums, and gained back some peace of mind.
I only continued to be involved in the Client Beta Program (centercode) for two main reasons: UI design is important to me and Waze is important to me, and I had the feeling that our voice is being heard in centercode, that we do have a way to improve Waze for the users.
The beta program is based on users feedback. Waze is actively asking for our experience and opinions. The beta team (Hila, Anna, Gal, et al) are very active in the forums. But actually communication there is as bad as described by Iain in other areas of Waze. It feels as if the Product team is using the Beta Team as a shield from the users.
They give us the impression that our opinion matters, but actually, it is mostly ignored. They keep adding more and more new features, but they ignore our feedback regarding design issues and bugs in the implementation. The result is that client has tons of old unsolved bugs and poorly designed features, and this list gets longer from version to version. Some of these bugs are quite severe and should have been treated as showstoppers. Before every version release to the Play Store, the beta team asks us if there are any issues that should prevent release, we reply with a list and they ignore it and release anyway.
There are many severe bugs in the client and I’m not going to list them here, you can find them all in the Android & iOS threads in centercode. I will just list three notable examples:
- You cannot control Waze volume from the app! The volume is tied to the “speakerphone” volume instead of the expected media volume. So it cannot be controlled from inside the app or from any normal Android volume slider. You have to be in a speakerphone call to control it.
This was reported a few months ago and was not fixed yet.
- If you’re on android 6 or 7, you cannot navigate to contacts. This new feature was released without taking care for the required system permissions. Of course, reported and never fixed.
(Actually this was a feature in Waze 3.x, it was removed in 4.0 with no reason or notice. It was revived only after many months of asking and begging, but it was released with this severe bug, and with many unresolved UI issues).
- Dynamic arrows are indeed being developed with regard to the community feedback, but with no answer to the hard questions we’ve raised, like: Why invest in this instead of lane guidance (which is asked for, for years now), Or why make a new turn instructions algorithm that is separate from the existing one, and will inevitably cause wrong guidance in many complex junctions, thus forcing many unnecessary re-edits. It seems like Product is set on releasing it, no matter the consequences.
A true dialog would have the product team listen to our feedback on new features earlier in the design. Would make sure to listen also to editors and GC and consider editing and routing when designing client features. Would regard our priorities on bug fixes, and would inform and update us on the plans for fixing (or not fixing) reported bugs and issues.
The frustration of me and many other beta testers is best seen in the following thread:
http://bit.ly/2gGIJeW - It is 9 months old and not much has improved since, but recently the frustrated discussion has awaken again. A few days ago, Hila promised that it will be discussed by senior management (maybe following Iain’s posts).
We’ve been in this discussion many times in the past. Various improvements have been promised, but the trend continues – Waze is listening less and less to its volunteers and users.
I surely hope this discussion will stir up the old community DNA of the company and will have you really create an open dialog instead of the current one-sided communications.