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| Criterion |  UX Research Diary Study |  UX Research Surveys |  UX Research Card Sorting |  UX Research Tree Testing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 a topic needs to be validated broadly and many people can answer the same question, surveys gather structured feedback in a scalable form. Answers become comparable and segmentable instead of remaining merely anecdotal. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-4 Wochen | 3-14 Tage | 20-45 min | 1-2 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 5-20 | 50+ | Based on research question | Based on research question |
Formatdifferent | Async | Async | Workshop + async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Diary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline | Survey Results, Charts, Segment Insights | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Findability Metrics, Path Analysis, Revised IA |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchTrackingBehavior | QuantitativeResearchValidation | Information architectureNavigationStructure | Information architectureNavigationFindability |