Transitions are really bad to web design, in my opinion. Sure, they might look cool the first few times, but if it slows down the time it takes to get to the next page, it will most certianly annoy the heck out of your visitors. As for highlited links and stuff, those do help the site, but they don't waste time loading for the most part. What you really want is a good basic layout, helpful/appealing content, and ease of use, including speed.