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| Criterion |  UX Research Usability Testing |  Engineering Golden Path |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 teams need a reliable default path for frequent use, sprawl quickly emerges without any guiding logic. Golden Path bundles the preferred path so good practice becomes easy and deviation becomes deliberate. | 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. | 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 | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-2 h je Session | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | 20-45 min | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 2-8 | Based on research question | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Usability Issues, Severity List, Recommendations | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions |
Tagsno overlap | ValidationUXPrototype | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | Information architectureNavigationStructure | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks |