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| Criterion |  UX Research Personas |  UX Research Usability Testing |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Innovation Design Thinking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When a product is built but people get stuck on tasks, usability testing shows the friction at concrete points. Observed use instead of self-report makes visible where orientation, understanding, or interaction breaks down. | 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. | For complex user problems with an uncertain cause, the method connects observation, interpretation, and experiment into a learning cycle. It keeps the focus on real needs and avoids premature solution language. This produces robust decisions for product and service. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage | 1-2 h je Session | 20-45 min | 1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen |
Participantsdifferent | Internes Team | Based on research question | Based on research question | 4-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Persona Profiles, Needs Summary, Scenario Notes | Usability Issues, Severity List, Recommendations | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Problem Statement, Prototype, Test Learnings |
Tagsno overlap | ResearchCustomerSynthesis | ValidationUXPrototype | Information architectureNavigationStructure | InnovationPrototypeResearch |