methodatlas
Compare

View methods side by side.

Choose up to four methods. Add them using the search and share the comparison by copying its link.

Criterion
Paper illustration for Contextual Inquiry.
UX Research
Contextual Inquiry
A paper-based illustration representing Context Canvas with its core stages and visible working result.
Product Discovery
Context Canvas
Paper board with the four ROAM fields Resolved, Owned, Accepted, and Mitigated.
Agile
ROAM Board
Paper illustration for Diary Study.
UX Research
Diary Study
Purposedifferent
When work processes are known only from accounts and the real context stays hidden, Contextual Inquiry makes behavior at the workplace visible. Observation and follow-up questions together show how people actually work, get interrupted, and improvise.When an environment of users, systems, and constraints is hard to grasp, it puts the context compactly on the table. It creates a clear reading of influence, boundary, and dependency.When work needs to move between different states or columns, it makes that movement and its handoffs legible. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as a ROAM Board and an Owner List.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.
Complexitydifferent
MediumLowLowMedium
Timedifferent
1-3 Wochen45-90 min20-40 min initial, dann laufend1-4 Wochen
Participantsdifferent
4-12 Beobachtungen3-103-155-20
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop + asyncAsync
Outputdifferent
Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain PointsContext canvas, Open questions, Shared context notesROAM Board, Owner ListDiary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline
Tagsno overlap
UX researchObservationContext
ContextFramingRequirementsCanvas
RiskAgileTrackingAlignment
UX researchTrackingBehavior
Add more methods