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| Criterion |  UX Research Diary Study |  Product Discovery Pretotyping |  UX Research Tree Testing |  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. | Pretotyping clarifies whether a customer problem and solution idea create enough real demand. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence, and captures the result as a pretotyping sketch, test setup, and conversion data. | When a navigation exists but search paths still fail, tree testing checks findability without visual distraction. The method shows whether labels, levels, and paths really lead to the intended destination. | 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 | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-4 Wochen | Stunden bis wenige Tage | 1-2 Tage | 20-45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 5-20 | 1-4 | Based on research question | Based on research question |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Diary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline | Pretotyping sketch, Test setup, Conversion data, Go or no-go decision | Findability Metrics, Path Analysis, Revised IA | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchTrackingBehavior | ValidationDemandMVP | Information architectureNavigationFindability | Information architectureNavigationStructure |