Usability of statistics and transparency open data portals in regional governments

The article employed the usability evaluation model for data portals proposed by [Machova et al. 2018] to compare statistics and transparency open government data portals of Brazilian states. The findings indicate that: data portals showed little uniformity in usability; the portals performed better in aspects related to the dataset specifications and worse in enabling user feedback and data request; transparency portals showed superior usability than statistics portals, excelling in providing machine-readable formats, assisting user navigation, and informing if data is up-to-date; there was significant variability in usability among portals within the same states. The research suggests considering the nature and context of data-producing institutions when analyzing open government data portals. Factors such as federal policies, regional governance, civil society participation, digital capabilities of public servants, and digital transformation maturity within state administrations can impact the usability of data portals. The article also highlights the need to deepen the understanding of data users to advance studies on open government data.