1. Merrily search for flight on Skyscanner
2. Decide to go with offer from Lastminute.com as a well known brand feels trustworthy.
3. Go through checkout process
4. Select ‘no’ to optional insurance
5. Click big pink button to continue
6. Presented with the following pop up:
7. Scan title and instantly want to dismiss (def don’t want this insurance). Intuitively click big pink button with word ‘Continue’ in it (all next/continue buttons to this point have also been big and pink).
8. Realise that big pink button is actually ‘add insurance’ even before this insidiously foul piece of design-sleight-of-hand has faded from view.
The use of a button styled like all hitherto ‘continue’ buttons coupled with the slippery copywriting which omits clear ‘yes please’ or ‘no thanks’ type messages makes this an easy one to trip up on. Even the placement of each option makes you reach for the big pink call to action before reading the suspiciously long and off-putting block of copy above and makes the wimpy little ‘Don’t Add’ link hardest to spot.
9. Think ok, will remove that insurance on the pre-confirmation screen, after all, it says we’re just going to ‘continue’ not ‘confirm’ right…
10. Wrong. Taken to the ‘Thanks for your purchase’ confirmation screen including the eye-bleedingly infuriating addition of £40 unwanted insurance.
11. Vomit torrent of hateful expletives towards designer of this pop up and by association everyone at Lastminute.com
12. Embark on painstaking journey to get refund which, to be fair is forthcoming without argument.
13. Tell everyone in office.
14. Write blog post to fill internet with yet more unsolicited hateful guff.
15. Realise life’s too short.
16. Stop writing blog post.\