[IxDA Discuss] Should analytics be an IA/XP role?

[Katie Albers]

At 6:10 PM -0700 11/27/07, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote:
>  > Do you think analyzing data using tools like Omniture and Coremetrics
>>  should
>>  fall under the user experience umbrella?
>
>
>Definitely falls under UX. So much can be learned about human behavior from
>stats, it's unreal. And stats don't lie, which is more than we can say about
>humans (even when these "lies" are unintentional).
>
>-r-

Oh dear. Oh my. If you're consulting a statistician who can't make 
any set of data say anything you want them to say then you should 
find a better statistician. Of course statistics lie. Statistics 
properly manipulated can tell you just about anything about anyone in 
any situation. It's like the old joke about the difference between a 
bookkeeper and an accountant: When you ask how much money you made 
last year a bookkeeper will answer the question and the accountant 
will ask you how much money you want to have made.

Data don't have meaning without context and context is amazingly 
flexible. To give just a few examples that leap to my mind whenever 
someone says that statistics don't lie I cite the following:

A study early in the co-education process of a previously all men's 
college that said 1/3 of all women admitted had married faculty 
members. Mind you there were only 6 women who'd been admitted and the 
social life of the college was all frat based and they imported girls 
for events, thank you very much. Both the male faculty in question 
were also brand new PhDs.

As we all know, 50% of all marriages end in divorce. Except that they 
don't and they never have. One year in the early 60s a study was done 
which noticed that in a particular year there would be 50% as many 
divorces as marriages. You'll never find anyone (except me) who will 
call your attention to the fact that those data are unrelated to the 
conclusion.

The point is not that the numbers are wrong, nor are they apparently 
"false" but both of them are intended to elucidate the behavior of a 
certain group of people under certain circumstances but tell us 
absolutely nothing about human behavior except that in the US (at 
least) we tend to believe things if there are numbers attached to it.

There are a million examples...many much more pointed than 
these...and books are constantly being written on the application and 
misapplication of statistics, but the central fact remains: If you 
want someone to believe what you're saying, find a number that seems 
to support it.

Katie
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Katie Albers
katie at firstthought.com