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 Diary Study | ![]() UX Research Contextual Inquiry | ![]() Delivery RAID Log | ![]() Facilitation Alignment Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 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. | Helps clarify scope, sequence, and delivery flow in concrete terms. It makes work, boundaries, and order steerable. The result is captured as a RAID Log and a source for status reporting. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-4 Wochen | 1-3 Wochen | 30 min Setup, dann laufend | 1-2 h |
Participantsdifferent | 5-20 | 4-12 Beobachtungen | 1-3 maintaining, briefing for everyone | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Diary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline | Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain Points | RAID Log, Status Report Source | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchTrackingBehavior | UX researchObservationContext | RiskTrackingStakeholdersGovernance | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation |



