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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  UX Research Tree Testing |  Product Discovery Pretotyping |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 navigation exists but search paths still fail, tree testing checks findability without visual distraction. The method shows whether labels, levels, and paths really lead to the intended destination. | Pretotyping clarifies whether a customer problem and solution idea create enough real demand. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence, and captures the result as a pretotyping sketch, test setup, and conversion data. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 1-2 Tage | Stunden bis wenige Tage | 1-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | Based on research question | 1-4 | Nutzertraffic |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Findability Metrics, Path Analysis, Revised IA | Pretotyping sketch, Test setup, Conversion data, Go or no-go decision | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | Information architectureNavigationFindability | ValidationDemandMVP | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth |