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| Criterion |  UX Research Contextual Inquiry |  UX Research Diary Study |  Operations After-Action Review |
|---|---|---|---|
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 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. | After missions or project phases with unclear outcomes, the method makes visible what actually happened and what can be learned from it. It separates course, effect, and causes so experience turns into solid improvement. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Wochen | 1-4 Wochen | 20-45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 Beobachtungen | 5-20 | 3-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain Points | Diary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchObservationContext | UX researchTrackingBehavior | LearningOperationsImprovement |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.
