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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Operations Fault Tree 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 a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. | For a critical top event with several possible triggers, the method logically models failure paths. It makes visible which combinations of conditions can lead to damage. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 30-60 min | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Fault Tree, Critical Paths, Cause Hypotheses, Control Actions |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | Root causeQualityOperations | RiskRoot causeSafety |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.
