Descriptive statistics are used during the exploratory stages of research or product development to get general feel for data. The form depends on the precise kind of data, but for numerical data include common measures (summary statistics) such as the mean, mode and variance of single variable, or covariance between variables. Ideally descriptive statistics should be used alongside forms of visualisation such as simple scatter plots or frequency distributions, as quite different kinds of data may share similar summary statistics as demonstrated by Anscombe's Quartet.
Used in Chap. 14: page 179
Also used in hcistats2e: Chap. 1: page 16
Used in glossary entries: Anscombe's Quartet, covariance, exploration stage, mean (μ), mode, scatter plots, summary statistics, variance, visualisation