I am a big fan of simplicity in web site design (as you can probably tell from this one).
Things I like on web sites
pages zooming onto my browser as fast as possible
links that look like links
easy to read text
clear site structure so you can find what's there
all graphics and decorations to be designed bearing download speed in mind...
and of course...
interesting and/or helpful and/or entertaining content - the point, as far as I'm concerned
(not to say there is no possibility of a site existing purely as art in itself...)
Unfavourite unhelpful things about web sites when they try to be TOO CLEVER!
a bug that crashes your whole computer
a bug that crashes your browser
when it won't let you see anything unless you download another plugin
when all the links are slow graphics, so you can't even go anywhere for ages - especially on the first page
links that don't look like links
music that suddenly blares out of your speakers without you asking it to
teeny weeny fonts, that don't get any bigger when you click on "enlarge font"
ads that pop up in another window and sit there getting in the way until you close it
ads that flash on and off incessantly
cookie request after cookie request
animated opening pages that take ages, that you can't skip
text that doesn't wrap if you resize the browser (unless that's demanded by the content, e.g. a wide table where that really is the clearest way of communicating) - especially when it's got the link in it that you want, somewhere off the right hand side of the screen...
missing information, when you know you could find it out if you rang them up
forms but no email address for contacting the site owner, so you have to be on-line to write something to them
pages that spawn another browser for no good reason when you click on a link
Unfavourite unhelpful things
for which there is not even the excuse that you were trying to do something arty and ingenious
graphics that haven't been optimised for the web and hence take a very very very very very boring long time to download, especially if they haven't been interlaced so that all you can see for ages is an inch of the top and you can't even tell if it's going to be worth waiting for
frame pages written so that everything on other sites after them appears inside their top frame
slow graphics and nothing to read while you're waiting
