THE EVIDENCE
OF MAKING SAHILTAYAL.COM
AN OPEN ARCHIVE OF DECISION-MAKING / 001

The evidence
of making.

The finished thing tells you what survived. The casefile tells you what was assumed, what was rejected, what became possible—and what still isn't known.

Explore the casefiles ↓ Download free field guide PDF · 21 pages

Examples are openly labelled illustrative. No invented results or unverified performance trophies.

DOSSIER // 01—03REASONING UNDER GLASS
NOT A TROPHY
A TRAIL.
↺DECISIONS
LEAVE TRACES
HYPOTHESISCONSTRAINTREVISION
01 / THE QUESTION02 / THE COST03 / THE PROOF
NO CLIENT RESULTS IMPLIEDBUILT TO BE QUESTIONED, NOT WORSHIPPEDSCROLL TO INSPECT
00 / THE PRINCIPLELOOK PAST THE SHINY OBJECT

Good work is not
magic. It is a series
of legible choices.

When we publish only outcomes, we lose the fascinating middle: the options we considered, the constraints that actually mattered, and the evidence that challenged our favourite ideas.

The Evidence of Making treats work as an inquiry. Here the question is not “How impressive does this look?” but “Can we inspect how the decision was made?”

OBSERVATION INTERPRETATION UNKNOWN
FRAMEWORK / 01—05

Five questions.
Better receipts.

Click through the anatomy of an inspectable decision.

INSPECTION WINDOW01 / 05
THE HYPOTHESIS

Name the change you hope to make.

A good starting point is a claim that could turn out to be wrong. Say whom the work serves and what they should be able to do.

“A visitor should be able to discover a useful idea without learning our interface first.”
AN ASSUMPTION IS A PLACE TO BEGIN, NOT A THING TO DEFEND.
01 / THE ARCHIVETHREE STUDIES IN MAKING

Open the casefiles.

Three illustrative investigations adapted from the original concept. They are worked design examples, not independently verified project histories.

003 FILES
FILE № 001ILLUSTRATIVE
WEB ARCHITECTURE • DECISIONS UNDER CONSTRAINT

A website that can wear many faces.

How do you let an interface transform wildly without duplicating its content or abandoning the visitors who need the simplest version?

THE TENSION
Expressiveness vs. consistency
STRATEGY
One semantic source, multiple presentations
Inspect the reasoning

Hypothesis PROPOSED

A shared content model can enable ambitious presentation modes without multiplying editorial maintenance.

Alternatives considered ILLUSTRATIVE

A — Independent pages: maximal freedom, but duplicated content risks drift. B — Shared content: more consistent editorially, but increases interface-state and regression-testing complexity.

Accepted cost

Every additional mode multiplies the combinations worth testing: keyboard paths, 360px reflow, contrast, reduced motion, and navigation continuity.

Evidence required NOT YET CLAIMED

A repeatable cross-mode task test, accessible navigation review, and measurements recorded on named devices. Do not infer “0ms CLS” or “60fps always” from a prototype.

TRY THIS: If your most spectacular mode broke on an older phone, what experience would you preserve?
FILE № 002ILLUSTRATIVE
INTERACTION DESIGN • BROWSER LEARNING

Teaching a browser to teach.

A keyboard-learning micro-experience prompts a deceptively tricky question: how much JavaScript is genuinely necessary to make a lesson comprehensible?

THE TENSION
Custom control vs. native predictability
STRATEGY
Semantic controls, testable state changes
Inspect the reasoning

Hypothesis PROPOSED

For one bounded learning interaction, HTML controls and a small state model may be enough to support clear, predictable use.

Alternatives considered ILLUSTRATIVE

A — Framework-led: useful for rich shared state and larger teams, but adds build and dependency choices. B — Native-first: reduces runtime complexity, but requires careful manual testing of state transitions.

Accepted cost

Native-first does not eliminate accessibility work. State announcements, keyboard focus, error messages and actual learning outcomes still need evaluation.

Evidence required NOT YET CLAIMED

Observe participants completing a comparable task before and after the lesson; separately audit keyboard and screen-reader interaction. “100% ARIA compliant” is not an honest substitute for this work.

TRY THIS: Would you rather ship one reliable lesson today or five animated lessons nobody understands?
FILE № 003ILLUSTRATIVE
PHYSICAL & BRAND NARRATIVE • FRAGRANCE

How do you show something you cannot show?

A screen cannot transmit a perfume. It can, however, offer clues: a literal description, a careful metaphor and the freedom to interpret for yourself.

THE TENSION
Clarity vs. evocative storytelling
STRATEGY
Literal notes + optional visual translation
Inspect the reasoning

Hypothesis PROPOSED

Typography, pacing and illustrative colour may help someone imagine a scent journey when explicitly presented as metaphor, not as a measurable reproduction of smell.

Alternatives considered ILLUSTRATIVE

A — Pure product realism: precise-looking bottle imagery, but little sensory explanation. B — Evocative interaction: emotionally resonant, but vulnerable to ambiguity and culturally narrow associations.

Accepted cost

Metaphors vary by person. A thoughtful interface must still offer plain text, work without sound and avoid claiming that a colour universally evokes a scent.

Evidence required NOT YET CLAIMED

Ask participants whether they can separate factual note descriptions from artistic interpretation. Include different sensory preferences and an entirely non-animated route.

TRY THIS: What part of your creation is intrinsically impossible to demonstrate—and how can you tell the truth about that limit?
02 / CHOOSE YOUR TRADE-OFF

Make the call.
Face the cost.

Six fictional project dilemmas. Two defensible choices each. No manufactured right answer—only consequences worth examining.

SCENARIO 01 / 06
FIELD SIMULATION / FICTIONAL

A brilliant mode, an unreliable phone

A striking animated interface works on your machine. On older phones, visitors cannot reliably reach the article beneath it. Launch is tomorrow.

The point is not to win. It is to notice who bears your decision's cost.

03 / THE DECISION LABORATORYAN ACTUAL TOOL TO TAKE AWAY

Turn a hunch into
an inspectable record.

Try a real choice from your project. Your notes stay in this browser; nothing is submitted to a server. Export your own decision record as Markdown or JSON.

⌁LOCAL BY DESIGN
NOT SENT ANYWHERE
NEW DECISION RECORD / LOCAL DRAFT

Your entries are kept only on this device. You can remove them with “Clear local draft.”

LIVE PREVIEWMARKDOWN
# Decision record

Start filling out the form to build your casefile.
A RECORD CAN BE REVISED. THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT.
04 / TAKE SOMETHING HOME
THE FREE COMPANION / PRINTABLE PDF

Leave with
something useful.

A real, self-contained 21-page field guide. Not a teaser, not a dynamically generated shell. A workbook you can read, print, annotate and use on your next project.

01–03 How to label evidence and uncertainty
04–09 Three worked cases and test plans
10–14 Trade-off matrix, experiment design and QA
15–19 Printable worksheets and reflective prompts
↓ Download the full field guide PDF · 21 pages

Created for the Sahil Tayal universe. Branded throughout with sahiltayal.com. No email gate. No third-party download service.

SAHIL TAYAL / FIELD GUIDE 01
THE
EVIDENCE
OF MAKING.
QUESTIONEVIDENCEREVISION
A 21-PAGE
DECISION WORKBOOKSAHILTAYAL.COM
21
PAGES
05 / KEEP THE CONVERSATION OPEN

Made to make
you think.

Disagree with an approach? Found a better question? Want to talk about a project, interaction or experiment? I'd rather hear a thoughtful objection than collect another empty compliment.

Write to Sahil Explore the main universe