This page has been redesigned by Sylveon. Every pillar of my system got an Eevee evolution. Sylveon didn't, so it took the design page. The block grid has been asked, politely, to wait outside.

The question decides the shape of the page

I design for one person on a phone who wants one answer. Their question sets the shape: a number gets a chart, a "has it happened yet" gets the answer with the date I checked, a choice gets every option in one table. On all but one of my sites, the page AI answers cite most is one of those shapes.

See my ribbon across the page? On a phone, that's where the first screen ends: 600 pixels down. The answer starts above it. Everything else is decoration, and I would know.

Same five blocks, two pages

The template. A big photo, a paragraph about the company, a sign-up box, and then, somewhere, the answer. Every block is fine on its own. Together they push the answer off the first screen.
The popup goes first. Someone who came for an answer shouldn't have to close anything to get it.
Shaped for the question. The answer moves to the top, the table that proves it comes next, and the rest waits its turn. Nothing new was written. The blocks moved.

Big stock photo

About our company

The answer20A for 12 AWG copper

The table that proves it

Shaped like a template, the answer starts below the first screen, under a sign-up box.

Three questions, three shapes, all live

Real pages from my own sites, captured at phone width from the live site.

"What's the number?"

A quick answer, then the chart. The number sits under the title, before any explanation. WireRef's ampacity chart drew 17.1% of the site's AI citations.

Captured October 13, 2026. Citations: Bing, Apr 13, 2026 to Oct 11, 2026.
"Is it out yet?"

The answer, then the date I checked it. What's known, what isn't, and the rumors it won't repeat, all on the first screen.

Captured October 13, 2026.
"Which one should I pick?"

Every option in one table. The same facts for each, so nobody has to open twelve tabs. It's Hear Homer's most-cited page, at 30%.

Captured October 13, 2026, scrolled to the table. Citations: Bing, Jul 20, 2026 to Oct 11, 2026.

Which shape wins on every one of my sites: the most-cited page, site by site.

The rules, at actual size

Every page on this site has to pass these, and a check stops any page that doesn't. They're shown here at the size they really are.

44 pixels to tap

Anything you can tap is at least 44 pixels each way, so a thumb in the sun can hit it.

Left: 44 pixels, the smallest this site ships. Right: 24 pixels, the kind it refuses.

About 68 characters a line

Long enough to read in phrases, short enough that your eye finds the next line.

This line is set at sixty-eight characters, the width of every para.

4.5 to 1, or it doesn't ship

Text has to stand at least 4.5 times brighter or darker than what's behind it. Sylveon's own pink can't. The samples below are drawn in the colors the site uses.

Body text16:1Ships
Links and labels6.7:1Ships
Sylveon's ribbon pink as text1.8:1Refused
Ribbon blue as text2.1:1Refused

The answer starts in the first 600 pixels

On a phone 390 pixels wide, every page's answer has to start in the first 600 pixels. On a phone, you scrolled past that line near the top of this page: the ribbon.

41 checks run on every change, and the browser checks run before every release. Every check, and the failure behind it.

Then I check whether people read it

A page can pass every rule and still lose its reader, so I watch how far people scroll and how long they stay, every month. In September, the deepest reading on any of my sites was on The Crawler's Cookbook: people scrolled 48% of the way down a page and spent 96 seconds actively on it, on average. 3 of the 5 with a month before scrolled less. Those slips are where I look next.

Every site, by month

Rejected by Sylveon

My rules, not something the data proves. Sylveon signed off anyway.

Popups and countdowns. Someone who came for an answer shouldn't have to close something to get it.
A buy button on a worry. A person working out what's wrong isn't shopping yet. That page answers the worry and points to the next question.
Decoration over the answer. A photo or a row of numbers above the answer pushes it off the first screen.

Rejected, counted

Those are my rules. This is Sylveon's ledger of every time I turned down a design on this very site: 24 rejections from Oct 11, 2026 to Oct 13, 2026, each dated and paraphrased from my own messages. Whoever built a version, the call on it was mine.

9The homepage hero
1. Oct 12, 2026home hero H1 has far too many words; spacing poor
2. Oct 12, 2026home hero worse than the old WordPress site
3. Oct 12, 2026heroes not good enough (site-wide walk-through)
4. Oct 12, 2026homepage still lacks the wow factor
5. Oct 12, 2026the hero's cowboy hat off-center and cheesy; color line under it broken
6. Oct 13, 2026hero has no clear border or boundary
7. Oct 13, 2026home hero and the block game never separated
8. Oct 13, 2026game hero block and scoreboard design not good enough
9. Oct 13, 2026hero needs significant improvement, said to be the 40th time
Turned down 2 times or more: the next try is two or three directions side by side, and I pick.
9The menu
1. Oct 11, 2026nav missing a lot; header not exciting enough
2. Oct 12, 2026two pieces per menu tab is too much
3. Oct 12, 2026mobile menu dropdown looks bad
4. Oct 12, 2026mobile menu still looks broken
5. Oct 12, 2026desktop dropdowns: spacing, overlap, misaligned text
6. Oct 12, 2026menu dropdown still not good enough; resume link missing
7. Oct 12, 2026mobile menu jumps around and is hard to navigate
8. Oct 12, 2026mobile menu button can be better
9. Oct 12, 2026game link, high score and search items don't match the nav
Turned down 2 times or more: the next try is two or three directions side by side, and I pick.
6Accordions
1. Oct 12, 2026FAQs clunky; opening one opens the other side
2. Oct 12, 2026a disclosure starts open and breaks, same as the FAQs
3. Oct 12, 2026accordions open to a clunky block of text
4. Oct 13, 2026hates single-column accordions, said before
5. Oct 13, 2026accordion still not fixed
6. Oct 13, 2026accordions still broken; opening one shifts the page
Turned down 2 times or more: the next try is two or three directions side by side, and I pick.

Source: the rejection ledger this site's build checks (docs/rejections.json), latest entry Oct 13, 2026.

The seventh evolution

My system has six pillars, and each one is an Eevee evolution picked for its best stat. Sylveon was left over, so it took the design page.

Sylveon No. 700 · Fairy

Every pillar got an evolution. Sylveon didn't, so it took the design page. Its best stat is Sp. Def, the same wall Umbreon brings to never shipping a wrong fact, pointed at the reader's eyes instead: popups, clutter and pale text bounce off it.

HP: 95
Attack: 65
Defense: 65
Sp. Atk: 110
Sp. Def: 130
Speed: 60

Base stats from PokeAPI, read October 14, 2026. Every Eevee evolution totals 525, so none is stronger, only built for a different job.

Where these rules came from, mistakes included: how I think.

Sylveon took the design page. Meet the six evolutions that run the system