As much as it might be fun to generalise and beat up on statistics, lets clear up a few points: i) The word statistics refers to: an area of mathematical study; a single piece, or group, of numerical data which describes a characteristic of some object; and a set of methods use in the analysis of said data. ii) Whilst numerical data is generally considered to be factual, the quality of the methodology used, the assumptions made about that data, the objectivity of the statistician, and the quality of the conclusions all affect how accurately the resulting description of the object of study reflect reality; iii) the usefulness of quantitative analysis should not be confused with the quality of some particular piece of analysis. Just because I make aweful sketches doesn't mean sketching is a bad idea (it just means you should hide the pencils & crayons from me). iv) You don't need a statistician to analyse quantitative data, but it certainly helps in some circumstances, particularly when dealing with complex statistical analysis; v) A small sample does not mean your data is useless (or an anecdote). It just means that the margin of error in any conclusions that you draw might be so great as to render the result meaningless in the context of your inquiry. vi) A large sample does not create inherently 'better' results. It does give you more data to work with, and it does reduce the margin of error. vii) There is no single statistical method that makes your analysis more or less correct. Different techniques will provide different insights. viii) You can never be 100% certain when dealing with statistics or statistical analysis. The whole point is not to be certain, but to be able to quantify the uncertainty.
I do encourage everyone to learn more about statistics, and particularly about how to critically assess the quality of statistical analysis when it's presented to you. To the OP, analytics fall under the UX purview in my team, but that's because I prefer to do my own analysis. I can see how that might not be the case in other environments, but I would definitely suggest the UX team gains access to the outputs from whoever does handle it. Regards Steve ---------------------------------------------- Steve 'Doc' Baty B.Sc (Maths), M.EC, MBA User Experience Strategist M: +61 417 061 292 Member, UPA - www.upassoc.org Member, IxDA - www.ixda.org Member, Web Standards Group - www.webstandardsgroup.org Contributor, UXMatters - www.uxmatters.com ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
