[IxDA Discuss] A List Apart web design survey results

[Todd Zaki Warfel]

I'm curious why you would:

a) Think ALA readers don't represent a representative sample of the  
world's Web designers
b) Assume that all 33,000 of the respondents were only ALA readers–do  
we know how many respondants are regular, occasional, or non-readers  
of ALA?
c) Think there is already a bias at the outset–I'm curious which bias  
you're speaking of? That they're responding to a survey constructed  
by ALA, or another bias?

True random sampling for research is realistically non-existent. A  
goal of good research should be to try and reduce that bias as much  
as possible, or at least reduce it to an acceptable level.

On Oct 20, 2007, at 8:44 AM, Steve Baty wrote:

> [...] do ALA readers provide a representative sample of the world's  
> Web designers the short answer is: almost certainly not. They did  
> get 33,000 responses (which is a decent number), but doesn't change  
> the fact that you already have one bias in place at the outset.
>
> So, the question to ask is: with respect to the questions being  
> asked, is there any reason to believe ALA readers would answer  
> differently to non ALA readers.


Cheers!

Todd Zaki Warfel
President, Design Researcher
Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
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