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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |  Architecture arc42 |  Growth A/B Testing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. | arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes. | When two variants compete, discussions quickly decide by taste rather than effect. A/B Testing checks behavior under controlled conditions and separates real improvement from chance or expectation effects. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 1-5 Tage | 1-2 Tage | 1-4 Wochen |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | Nutzertraffic | 1-4 | 1-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Experiment results, Decision log, Learning summary |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | ExperimentsGrowthAnalyticsValidation |