When Your Detour Breaks the Drive (and the Trust)

☕When Your Detour Breaks the Drive (and the Trust)

Waze’s latest UX decision leaves commuters confused — and late.

For years, Waze was the gold standard for smart routing. It didn’t just get you there — it helped you stop for coffee without wrecking your ETA. But a subtle change in how detours are displayed has quietly eroded user trust.

What Changed?

Previously, when users searched for stops like gas stations or coffee shops, Waze would show exactly how many minutes the detour would add to your route.

“Want to stop at Starbucks? Boom — +3 minutes. Done.”

Now, all you get is distance in miles — with no indication of how much time it will add. That 2.4-mile stop? It might be 2 minutes off your path… or a scenic tour through rush-hour traffic. You won’t know until you commit.

Why It’s a Problem

🔁 Loss of trust – Users depend on precise time estimates. That’s Waze’s core value.

🧭 Bad UX – Distance without time is meaningless in routing. A 1-mile detour in NYC ≠ 1 mile in rural Kansas.

🚫 Broken logic – Waze sometimes suggests reverse direction stops just because they technically match the query — even if it disrupts the route entirely.

This is a classic case of information hierarchy failure. By prioritizing miles over minutes, Waze has demoted the very thing that makes it valuable: context-aware decision making.

What SMBs, Developers, and UX Teams Can Learn

Small UX shifts can have massive ripple effects on trust and usability:

• Don’t assume one metric fits all contexts

• Preserve core user behaviors unless backed by overwhelming improvement

• Always test for real-world implications, not just design elegance

Whether you’re building a routing engine or a customer dashboard, clarity > cleverness.

🔍Need help auditing your app’s user journey or information hierarchy?

We help SMBs, healthcare platforms, and tech teams identify UX gaps that can silently destroy adoption or loyalty. Let’s take a look before your users hit the exit.

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