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| Criterion |  UX Research Surveys |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Architecture C4 Model |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable. | The C4 Model makes a system legible across several resolution levels, from context down to code. It suits situations where different audiences need to understand the same architecture from different altitudes. | ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 3-14 Tage | 15-45 min | 1-4 h | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional |
Participantsdifferent | 50+ | 1-3 | 1-5 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation |
Formatdifferent | Async | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Survey Results, Charts, Segment Insights | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Context Diagram, Container Diagram, Component Diagram | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions |
Tagsno overlap | QuantitativeResearchValidation | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | ArchitectureCommunicationVisualization | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks |