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| Criterion |  UX Research Diary Study |  UX Research Tree Testing |  Product Discovery Outcome-Driven Innovation |  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. | 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. | Outcome-Driven Innovation clarifies customer problems, solution opportunities, and evidence. It separates jobs, desired outcomes, importance, satisfaction, and opportunity, and captures results as desired outcome statements, an opportunity landscape, and segments by underserved needs. | 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 | Medium | High | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-4 Wochen | 1-2 Tage | Mehrere Wochen | 20-45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 5-20 | Based on research question | 2-6 researchers plus sample | Based on research question |
Formatdifferent | Async | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Diary Entries, Longitudinal Patterns, Experience Timeline | Findability Metrics, Path Analysis, Revised IA | Desired outcome statements, Opportunity landscape, Segmentation by underserved needs, Innovation hypotheses | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchTrackingBehavior | Information architectureNavigationFindability | OutcomesInnovationResearchQuantitative | Information architectureNavigationStructure |