View methods side by side.
Choose up to four methods. Add them using the search and share the comparison by copying its link.
| Criterion | ![]() UX Research Contextual Inquiry | ![]() UX Research Diary Study | ![]() Innovation Starbursting | ![]() Domain Modeling EventStorming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | Helps clarify ideas, open questions, and testable next steps in concrete terms. It opens the thinking space, collects ideas, and leads to testable options. The result is captured as a star-shaped question map, question list, and assumption list. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Wochen | 1-4 Wochen | 30-60 min | 2-8 h |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 Beobachtungen | 5-20 | 3-10 | 5-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain Points | Diary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline | Star-Shaped Question Map, Question List, Assumption List | Event Timeline, Ubiquitous Language, Boundaries, Open Questions |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchObservationContext | UX researchTrackingBehavior | BrainstormingIdeationWorkshopDiscovery | Domain-Driven DesignEventsDiscoveryWorkshop |



