Life’s a beach

From the start, I’ll derail real quick and let you know I don’t like a lot of travel sites. I think the Orbitz site design is wacky (I’ve also read horror stories about their customer service), Hotwire’s home page is a little too much for me and Expedia is just kind of goofy to me as well. I’m most loyal to Kayak.com. The logic behind the user experience is sound, the design is simple and it does a great job convincing me that it is doing everything it can to find me the cheapest airfare, simply by keeping the whole experience as straightforward as possible. I realize I might not be the target user for the broader travel service sites I initially disregarded, but I think my opinion will stand until I need to book a family vacation.

A co-worker pointed out bbc.co.uk to me yesterday. In the header there is a call-out to customize your homepage. The copy is perfect; they’re calling it my home page, when it’s not (yet), and they’re giving me the opportunity to customize it.