Popups

I'm now working on a website, containing dozens of forms, tables and reports. I usually opt to design simple pages with controls that appear once they're needed and disappear at other times. The essence of web browsers clarifies the difference between websites and applications: A website has one current page being shown to the user, and that's it! Every element should be placed in that page, and that's what makes web design a challenging job. Knowing how to form all the elements to make a website eye catchy yet practical is truly a tough thing to do.

Imagine you're designing a form, desperately thinking of creating lists of values for users to pick (any value such as date, state or city name. Those Oracle users know I'm talking about LOVs! My colleague suggested me to use popups, and I did so, yet the results are not satisfying.

Whenever I'm using a website, I don't really wanna be bothered by disturbing popup windows. Popups really don't belong to the web world. They might be a temporary solution to fulfil users when it comes to lookup tables, announcements, messages, etc., but they are really annoying. They spoil the personality of websites which is to provide a single page of information, media, links or any other element to the user, letting him/her to interact with it and decide where to go and what to click.

Popups should be replaced by a more compatible alternative. The rampant growth of popups would destroy the web. That's why most modern browsers today provide an option to block popups! That might seem a good solution for ignoring them, but what if web developers like me rely on popups to convey important information?