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| Criterion |  UX Research Affinity Diagramming |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Operations Root Cause Tree Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When research notes, feedback, or observations sit unconnected side by side, affinity diagramming sorts the raw material into solid themes. Many individual points turn into patterns that make decisions and opportunities clearer. | ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification. | For a problem with several suspected causes, the method builds a causal structure instead of a mere list. It makes visible how causes connect and where the strongest points of leverage lie. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45–90 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Theme clusters, Insight statements, Opportunity areas | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Cause Tree, Evidence Notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | SynthesisQualitativeRoot cause | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | Root causeTreeIncidentQuality |
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