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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Facilitation Nominal Group Technique |  Facilitation Dot Voting |  Facilitation Mind Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 loud voices could dominate a round, Nominal Group Technique protects individual thinking time from group effects. It collects ideas separately first and only then enables shared weighting. | When a workshop has produced too many options and the group needs to condense quickly, dot voting makes preferences visible in a short time. It bundles individual votes into a solid signal for the next selection. | When a topic is still unclear and too many thoughts surface at once, Mind Mapping creates an open surface for ordering them. It makes connections, subtopics, and starting points visible without fixing them too early. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 60-120 min | 5-15 min | 15-45 min |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 5-12 | 3-20 | 1-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Ranked Ideas, Clarified Options, Group Priority | Ranked list, Consensus signal, Shortlist | Mind Map, Topic Clusters, Open Questions |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | FacilitationPrioritizationVotingInclusion | FacilitationVotingConsensusPrioritization | BrainstormingIdeasMappingStructureFacilitation |