drive with a world cup commentator!
Today I discovered that Waze added a ‘Drive with a Soccer Commentator’ easter egg to celebrate the World Cup.
And while it’s a feature that the vast majority of Waze users won’t even notice. let alone use, it brought a smile to my face and I want to draw attention to the design that went into this feature that sparks joy.
When I stumbled across the ‘Drive with a Soccer Commentator’ feature serendipitously in Waze’s settings, I turned it on out of curiosity. When the suave voice of a Spanish man started commentating my commute home, I couldn’t help but grin. He said things like ohHhh it looks there might be a right turn up ahead!! and be mindful of this highway interchange coming in half a mile!! (paraphrased, obviously from Spanish). It might have been corny and repetitive, but the sheer unfamiliarity of the whole thing and the commentator’s positive reinforcement every time I made a turn helped me relax during an otherwise very stressful time.
I’m a bit of a boring prude when it comes to product design. The majority of my possessions are no-nonsense, dully colored, and otherwise uninteresting with a singular focus on function. I usually rely on Google Maps’ slick, pared down interface to guide me. And it works great—but typically the bigger a company gets, the less they take creative liberties like this. So I really appreciate fun, clever tidbits like Waze’s World Cup feature(s) that brighten my day (a quick Google search tells me this isn’t their first Easter egg) and so long as these fun features remain unobtrusive and well-executed, I will continue turning to Waze and their playful joie de vivre.