Engaging Citizens with Open Government Data: The Value of Dashboards Compared to Individual Visualizations

Abstract

The use of individual visualizations for Open Government Data (OGD) has been shown not to be entirely efficient in engaging citizens. Dashboards constitute a promising solution, but how they should be designed and applied in an OGD context remains under-investigated. This article examines whether the use of well-designed dashboards can increase citizen engagement with OGD. To achieve this objective, a literature review on dashboard design principles is conducted. Then, the outputs of this literature review are used to compile a list of 16 dashboard design principles in the context of OGD. Next, we apply these design principles to build the Namur (Belgium) Budget Dashboard (NBDash) in order to provide a practical application of our research and use it for evaluation. Finally, we use NBDash as a use case to evaluate the usefulness of well-designed dashboards compared to individual visualizations through an experimental study. The results of the experimental design study with 108 participants suggest that the implementation of well-designed dashboards can be beneficial in encouraging the use of data on portals. In addition, the selection of meaningful metrics and the use of appropriate visualizations, all organized in a clear presentation, have proven to be the primary factors of successful dashboards.