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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  UX Research Tree Testing |  Decision Making Decision Tree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When content only makes sense internally and users can't find the structure again, card sorting exposes their mental order. Terms, groups, and naming are then aligned with the target group's expectations. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | When a navigation exists but search paths still fail, tree testing checks findability without visual distraction. The method shows whether labels, levels, and paths really lead to the intended destination. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 30-90 min | 1-2 Tage | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 2-8 | Based on research question | 1-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Findability Metrics, Path Analysis, Revised IA | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | Information architectureNavigationFindability | DecisionTreeOptions |