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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Innovation Design Thinking |  UX Research User Interviews |  UX Research Personas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For complex user problems with an uncertain cause, the method connects observation, interpretation, and experiment into a learning cycle. It keeps the focus on real needs and avoids premature solution language. This produces robust decisions for product and service. | When teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible. | When target groups stay too vague and teams talk about the same people differently, personas create a shared, solid picture of usage. Condensed profiles make needs, contexts, and differences tangible enough for decisions. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen | 30–60 min per interview | 1-3 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 4-10 | 1 participant per interview | Internes Team |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Problem Statement, Prototype, Test Learnings | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | Persona Profiles, Needs Summary, Scenario Notes |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | InnovationPrototypeResearch | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | ResearchCustomerSynthesis |