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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. | When demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 45-90 min | 1-5 Tage | 45-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 2-8 | Nutzertraffic | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions |