There is to be an independent enquiry into why polls for the 2015 UK General Election got it so wrong following the shock majority win for the Conservatives.

Reasoning and discussions in the media around why the polls were so different really resonated with our UX Practitioners here at SimpleUsability, who have been following the election closely after a review of the party websites.

Here’s our thoughts on where the polls went wrong and why this is an extremely pertinent example of the importance of research methodology, something we’re incredibly passionate about here at SimpleUsability

1. Experiment design
BBC Panorama aired a programme called ‘Who will win the election’ where Nate Silver, US data journalist, explained the dilemma of users being polled in one way and acting in another way.
“Opinion polls usually only ask which party you’re going to support. But on Election Day you’re asked to vote for a candidate not a party… a popular MP gets more votes than the polls are able to predict.”
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