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Selected:ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Usability TestingAssumption MappingAssumption Surfacing
| Criterion | ![]() Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) | ![]() UX Research Usability Testing | ![]() Product Discovery Assumption Mapping | ![]() Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | When a product is built but people get stuck on tasks, usability testing shows the friction at concrete points. Observed use instead of self-report makes visible where orientation, understanding, or interaction breaks down. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 1-2 h je Session | 45-60 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | Based on research question | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Usability Issues, Severity List, Recommendations | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | ValidationUXPrototype | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery |



