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Criterion
Paper illustration for Contextual Inquiry.
UX Research
Contextual Inquiry
Paper illustration for Diary Study.
UX Research
Diary Study
EventStorming on a long working surface: colored event cards form a business flow, friction points are marked, and a boundary separates different areas of responsibility.
Domain Modeling
EventStorming
Paper illustration of an assumption matrix with prioritized test cards
Decision Making
Assumption Surfacing
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.When a domain consists of many events, rules, and states, it creates a shared modeling space for the team. It bundles language, flows, and boundaries before domain knowledge fragments into siloed views.Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it.
Complexitydifferent
MediumMediumMediumLow
Timedifferent
1-3 Wochen1-4 Wochen2-8 h45-90 min
Participantsdifferent
4-12 Beobachtungen5-205-122-8
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncAsyncWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain PointsDiary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience TimelineEvent Timeline, Ubiquitous Language, Boundaries, Open QuestionsAssumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan
Tagsno overlap
UX researchObservationContext
UX researchTrackingBehavior
Domain-Driven DesignEventsDiscoveryWorkshop
AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery
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