Clara was an enthusiastic traveler who often booked her flights online. She only used her favorite travel booking website–FlyHigh, known for its user-friendly interface. She found it easy to book her travels, with clear fields for entering her travel dates, destination, and personal details.

One day, Clara went to book a last-minute flight for a weekend getaway. As she filled in her information, she accidentally mistyped her return date. Instead of entering the correct date, she typed a date in the future that was clearly wrong.

Normally, this would have been a problem — most sites would simply reject her entry and prompt her to try again. But FlyHigh’s system, using Postel’s Law, was designed to be flexible and user-centric. When Clara entered the wrong date, the system didn’t throw an error or reject her input outright. Instead, it displayed a gentle reminder, “It looks like your return date is unusually far in the future. Would you like to confirm or adjust it?”

This simple yet thoughtful feature saved Clara time and frustration. It adapted to her mistake, offering a way to fix the error without forcing her to start over. FlyHigh was precise in providing feedback, ensuring that Clara’s booking was accurate while still tolerating minor input mistakes.

Clara easily corrected the date, completed her booking, and was on her way. FlyHigh’s approach made it clear that while the system allowed for errors, it always ensured the final result was precise and accurate.

Postel’s Law suggests that by being flexible with user input—allowing for minor mistakes—the system can still ensure precise and accurate output. This ability to handle errors gracefully, while maintaining correct results, enabled Maya and other users to complete their tasks smoothly and with confidence.