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| Criterion | ![]() UX Research Contextual Inquiry | ![]() Knowledge Modeling Knowledge Mapping | ![]() Decision Making Constraint Analysis | ![]() Decision Making Decision Tree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | Knowledge Mapping makes knowledge, gaps, and transfer paths visible across a field. It fits when expertise should not just exist but also be findable and transferable. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Wochen | 1-3 h | 30-90 min | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 Beobachtungen | 3-12 | 2-8 | 1-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain Points | Knowledge Map, Critical Knowledge Areas, Transfer Plan | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchObservationContext | KnowledgeMappingRisk | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | DecisionTreeOptions |



