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Interaction design is all too often simply surface treatment, mere smoke and mirrors. The Kayak site, if you haven’t had the good fortune to use it, is awesome. It works intuitively, powerfully, efficiently. I love me that Kayak.com.

But last week, just when I’m all ready to make a purchase and presumably earn Kayak a little commission scratch, I get this. And a great experience turns to poo.

Don’t get me wrong, Kayak is and will be my go-to flight comparator for the foreseeable future. But when you compare this to the other “oops” messages I’ve been posting lately (see here, here, and here), it just doesn’t stack up.

Thought for the day, peeps: one differentiator between an adequate experience and a great experience is that a great UX turns even the “oops” moments into an opportunity for increasing users’ attachment to your offering.

This my friends is how you increase trust and confidence through your UI.

In this case, it’s Travelocity that has done this, with the simple addition of some content about disclosing information before the user makes an irrevocable change.

Good on Travelocity for this one.