Waze - putting a nail in the coffin of conventional sat nav?

Waze is a mobile app offering satellite navigation services using GPS for its users on a free to use subscription. The service connects all waze users together into a navigational network where information is shared to optimise journey times and assist your fellow waze(rs) to avoid hold ups. The mobile app based solution attracted so much attention that Google decided it was worth over a billion dollars of their money to buy it out. Nice work and it remains the most successful emerging tech story to breakthrough from an Israeli start-up. The app itself has a fresh feel to it with gamification at its heart with candy rewards for activity. This is a bit of a sideshow from the real star of the show. What the device gives you is real time speeds for all the roads in your journey and alerts up ahead for areas of delays which have been flagged by fellow users. This really is social media navigation but it really works. Usual functions such as trip planning and alternate routes are offered but this speed update service for free is fabulous. Is there any need for a conventional satnav when you can use this? Epic customer experience delivered through your smart phone for free. 

Form versus Function - Does style in a user interface matter?

As the world of web aligns itself with Google a mobile first approach to websites becomes more common. This thinking pushes functionality to the forefront of site design with everything orientated to make the experience as simple, efficient and fast as possible for the user. 

But are we missing out with this military approach to digital interaction?

What value is there in beautiful designs that delight the eye and heart as much as the logical brain? As digital becomes a bigger part in all our lives I think the style of our solutions should play a larger part as people seek out enjoyment from the time they invest digitally as well as a route to making their lives more manageable. Each time you use a beautifully crafted site it has the opportunity to delight you and give you some relief from the functional lists and anonymous burger menus. Design and style need focus too if we are to provide epic customer experiences.