methodatlas
Compare

View methods side by side.

Choose up to four methods. Add them using the search and share the comparison by copying its link.

Criterion
Paper illustration of two user profile cards with a goal, behavior evidence, and an open research question.
UX Research
Personas
Paper illustration for Causal Factor Analysis.
Operations
Causal Factor Analysis
Paper illustration of two people facing each other, speech bubbles and an open interview notebook.
UX Research
User Interviews
Paper illustration for Current Reality Tree
Systems Thinking
Current Reality Tree
Purposedifferent
When target groups stay too vague and teams talk about the same people differently, personas create a shared, solid picture of usage. Condensed profiles make needs, contexts, and differences tangible enough for decisions.For an event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events.When teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible.A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once.
Complexitydifferent
MediumHighLowHigh
Timedifferent
1-3 Tage2-6 h30–60 min per interview2-6 h
Participantsdifferent
Internes Team3-101 participant per interview3-8
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Persona Profiles, Needs Summary, Scenario NotesEvent Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective ActionsInterview Notes, Themes, Insight SummaryCurrent Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas
Tagsno overlap
ResearchCustomerSynthesis
CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline
QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery
Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality
Add more methods