Some good tricks of making pleasing and appealing webpages ...

Some good tricks of making pleasing and appealing webpages ...

I was visiting a forum website called India Broadband Forum. The website has a very good and rich classification of forums. Indeed, the search of messages also seems to be good (powered by Google Custom Search). However, one bad thing I felt was when I logout, a JavaScript confirmation like 'Are you sure you want to logout?'. Such things which are like acting too proactive and too very user-friendly actually play against the efficiency of the website. I just thought I would share a few tips and tricks for a good website.

1. Script confirmations like 'Are you sure ...' to be used only when it is absolutely necessary like deletion of a problem (where the action reversing is too difficult or cumbersome or is impossible).
2. Inputs through scripting is indeed a very bad practice. As a security precaution, web browsers like Internet Explorer block script based inputs.
3. Popup flooding is one another bad thing that most of our Indian websites resort to. Typical ones are Rediff. I really don't find a valid reason for that much amount of popup flooding on the users. When a gentle text based advertising like Google Adwords, TextAds could be used, I really don't find a valid reason on why people still keep subscribing to weird ideas like rude popup windows.
4. Whenever a content is to be indicated like Terms and Conditions, preferably show them as inline HTML in the same theme as the website instead of hyperlinking to a .DOC or a .PDF page.
5. Avoid Mailto URLs
6. Have the images compressed and do not try including a 1 mega byte BMP for a normal website image.

Readers: What do you feel? Please share about what type of features you like and what you don't like in a typical web presentation?