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| Criterion |  UX Research Diary Study |  Innovation Design Thinking |  UX Research Card Sorting |
|---|---|---|---|
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. | For complex user problems with an uncertain cause, the method connects observation, interpretation, and experiment into a learning cycle. It keeps the focus on real needs and avoids premature solution language. This produces robust decisions for product and service. | When content only makes sense internally and users can't find the structure again, card sorting exposes their mental order. Terms, groups, and naming are then aligned with the target group's expectations. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-4 Wochen | 1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen | 20-45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 5-20 | 4-10 | Based on research question |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Diary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline | Problem Statement, Prototype, Test Learnings | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchTrackingBehavior | InnovationPrototypeResearch | Information architectureNavigationStructure |
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