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| Criterion |  UX Research Contextual Inquiry |  UX Research Diary Study |  Architecture arc42 |  Architecture Views and Beyond |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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. | Views and Beyond organizes architecture into several views so no single diagram has to do everything at once. This makes it possible to choose the representation that fits the stakeholder's question. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Wochen | 1-4 Wochen | 1-2 Tage | 1-3 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 Beobachtungen | 5-20 | 1-4 | 1-4 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain Points | Diary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Architecture Views, Cross-view Notes, Rationale |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchObservationContext | UX researchTrackingBehavior | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | DocumentationStakeholdersArchitecture |