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Criterion
Paper illustration of two people facing each other, speech bubbles and an open interview notebook.
UX Research
User Interviews
Paper illustration with architecture components and concrete change tasks for comparison.
Architecture
SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
Affinity Diagramming
UX Research
Affinity Diagramming
Paper illustration of two user profile cards with a goal, behavior evidence, and an open research question.
UX Research
Personas
Purposedifferent
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.SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning.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.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.
Complexitydifferent
LowHighLowMedium
Timedifferent
30–60 min per interviewPreparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope45–90 min1-3 Tage
Participantsdifferent
1 participant per interviewArchitecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting3-10Internes Team
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Interview Notes, Themes, Insight SummaryDomain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternativesTheme clusters, Insight statements, Opportunity areasPersona Profiles, Needs Summary, Scenario Notes
Tagsno overlap
QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
SynthesisQualitativeRoot cause
ResearchCustomerSynthesis
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