Monday, June 19, 2006

Statistics without tears

That's the title of an interesting introductory book on Statistics that I'm reading through at the moment. Written by Derek Rowntree and published by Penguin (ISBN: 0-14-013632-0), the book provides an introduction to the theory and practice of statistical analysis without (much) recourse to formulae, calculations, charts, graphs or tables of figures.

Aimed at people that have to deal with statistics and statistical analysis, but who could go their lives seeing without a Gaussian distribution and not view it a loss, the 184-page text takes the reader on a fairly painless journey through descriptive and inferential statistcs; their meaning, use, and calculation.

If you've ever found yourself struggling to make headway into the topic of statistics then this book may offer you an olive branch.

Alternate titles for the book were: Statistics without calculations; Statistics for the innumerate; Statistics in words & pictures; The underlying ideas of statistcs; or How to think statistically.

PS: I'm reading this in preparation for a presentation on statistical analysis of usability and user research data to a largely non-mathematical audience later this year.

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