Survey of Brazilian Open Budget Data Portals: Query Interfaces and Dashboards

To promote transparency, the Brazilian government provides access to public data through web portals featuring query interfaces and dashboards. While query interfaces are used by more experienced users to gather data for further analyses, dashboards that include visualizations help a broader audience consult and explore data. A domain of particular complexity that benefits from the use of these interfaces is government spending and budgets. This study analyzes dashboards and query interfaces of government budget data through qualitative research based on a survey. Focusing on Brazil's budget transparency initiative, we examined 83 interfaces in total: 30 dashboards and 53 query interfaces from federal, state, and major city governments. This survey assesses these interfaces using design patterns for general-purpose dashboards and design principles for open government data dashboards. Our findings reveal a critical weakness: while most portals provide access to budget data, they largely neglect user-centered design, failing to provide the necessary context or consider the data literacy of their audience. This creates a significant "transparency gap'' that undermines genuine accountability and demonstrates the need for a fundamental shift in the design of these essential public tools.