To respond to people proposing a quantitative study of users or potential users of the Heritage Gateway search function, I was told by a lecturer during my masters that the minimum number of subjects you need to use to have a hope of returning significant results from a statistical analysis is about 30. If you get more, it is obviously more robust (100 would be good), but you certainly don't need 1000 to be able to give a useful response. The questions asked obviously also need to be designed well to enable a quantitative rather than qualitative analysis (grading the perceived success of things from 1-5 or 1-10 works quite well), but it makes it more feasible to do a focus-group-type study with, say, 50 people interested in heritage, but not necessarily already users. However, I think having the time or funding to do it might pose a bigger problem!
Emma Whitcombe
HER Assistant
Archaeology Service | Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre | Cocklebury Road | Chippenham | SN15 3QN
Tel: 01249 705503 | E-mail: [log in to unmask] | Website: www.wiltshire.gov.uk
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