Dear Alex Kuskis, dear colleagues, thank you very much for enlighting us about the difference between quantitative and qualitative research. I always had the impression that both could learn from each other and that the method should be chosen that fits best to the research problem and to what kind of insights one is looking for. Now I know better. I especially like the sentence "There are two main types of user research: quantitative (statistics) and qualitative (insights). Quant has quaint advantages, but qualitative delivers the best results for the least money. Furthermore, quantitative studies are often too narrow to be useful and are sometimes directly misleading. " I think this is a very fair and well-elaborated summary that should finish the whole academic discussion that went on during the last decades. Things can be so easy. ;-) Thank you once more, Alex. Kind regards, Uwe PS: I wonder whether this is the spirit of the next AIR conference in Sussex? After Toronto, I get more and more a strange feeling. Is this the culture clash between cultural studies against science? I wouldn't like that. On 4 Mar 04, at 12:01, air-l-request@aoir.org wrote:
Message: 3 From: "Alex Kuskis" <akuskis@ican.net> To: <air-l@aoir.org> Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 19:30:24 -0500 Subject: [Air-l] Number Fetishism Reply-To: air-l@aoir.org
This is for our friend from Oz who is so keen on quantitative
analysis
to the exclusion of all else.........Alex Kuskis Alertbox, March 1, 2004: Risks of Quantitative Studies Summary: Number fetishism leads usability studies astray by focusing on statistical analyses that are often false, biased, misleading, or overly narrow. Better to emphasize insights and qualitative research. There are two main types of user research: quantitative (statistics) and qualitative (insights). Quant has quaint advantages, but qualitative delivers the best results for the least money. Furthermore, quantitative studies are often too narrow to be useful and are sometimes directly misleading.
======================================= Uwe Matzat Sociology Section Sub-Department of Technology and Policy Department of Technology Management Eindhoven University of Technology P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven The Netherlands phone: +31 40 247-8392 email: u.matzat@tm.tue.nl http://www.tue-tm-soc.nl/~matzat/ =======================================