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| Criterion |  UX Research Customer Journey Mapping |  UX Research Empathy Mapping |  Innovation Starbursting |  UX Research Affinity Diagramming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a user journey falls apart across many touchpoints, customer journey mapping makes the experience visible as a coherent arc. Phases, emotions, and breaks become legible enough to prioritize critical moments deliberately. | When a lot is assumed about a target group but little is seen jointly, empathy mapping makes knowledge and gaps directly comparable. The picture also shows which assumptions hold up and where evidence is missing. | Helps clarify ideas, open questions, and testable next steps in concrete terms. It opens the thinking space, collects ideas, and leads to testable options. The result is captured as a star-shaped question map, question list, and assumption list. | When research notes, feedback, or observations sit unconnected side by side, affinity diagramming sorts the raw material into solid themes. Many individual points turn into patterns that make decisions and opportunities clearer. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 2-4 h | 30–60 min | 30-60 min | 45–90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-10 | 4-8 | 3-10 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Journey Map, Pain-point List, Opportunity Backlog | Empathy Map, Assumptions List, Research Gaps | Star-Shaped Question Map, Question List, Assumption List | Theme clusters, Insight statements, Opportunity areas |
Tagsno overlap | JourneyServiceService design | SynthesisQualitativeWorkshop | BrainstormingIdeationWorkshopDiscovery | SynthesisQualitativeRoot cause |