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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  UX Research Diary Study |  Product Strategy Counter Metrics |
|---|---|---|---|
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 experiences build up over days or weeks and a single session cannot capture them, Diary Study records the course of everyday life. Recurring triggers, moods, and habits become visible this way, beyond the sharpness of memory. | When a headline metric could mask side effects, it adds guardrail signals against unwanted outcomes. It connects customer value, product logic, and decision priorities. The result is captured as a counter-metric list and guardrail definitions. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 1-4 Wochen | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 5-20 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Diary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline | Counter Metric List, Guardrail Definitions |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | UX researchTrackingBehavior | MetricsMeasurementStrategyExperiments |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.
