I like kayak – I think it’s great. However, for some reason I don’t think of it very often when I search. I think for me it comes down to the feel.

I think kayak could use some help in the beauty department. Check out this post on “pretty is a feature” – with which I completely agree.

There are ways to make something look fantastic without taking away anything from function. Function you have (and it’s great), but style is something that you can probably work on. Digg is a great example of style meets function IMHO. The “feel” of it is minimalistic but the little details in the design make all the difference.

Most notably, I think the home page on kayak needs to have the links and forms grouped in a slightly more visually appealing and intuitive way. It’s the little details, but they do make a big difference. A good example of visually intuitive and simple is: http://www.heyamigo.net/

You might want to contact Jeff Veen – he knows a lot about building great UI’s. He might be available for consulting.

You might like it even more, I hope.

(If you don’t like it more, I’d love to hear why. You won’t hurt my feelings at all, I promise)

-billo, chief architect, kayak.com