Enhancing the usability and usefulness of open government data: A comprehensive review of the state of open government data visualization research

Although open government data (OGD) are becoming widely available, they have not yet reached their full potential due to their limited use. Supplementing OGD with visualizations can make data more engaging, useful, and understandable. We synthesized the academic research on the development and evaluation of OGD visualizations in the IEEE Explore, Science Direct, and ACM Digital Library databases. Our findings suggest four streams of research: 1) description and evaluation of specific examples of OGD visualization, 2) general tools and frameworks, 3) users' needs assessments and evaluation of usability, and 4) other user-related outcomes. While there is a growing robust literature describing specific cases, further empirical research is needed on evaluating the usability of OGD visualizations and tools for different audiences. Promising strategies to enhance the usability and usefulness of OGD are to employ advanced OGD platforms with embedded visualizations and analytics tools and to collaborate with research centers on user studies to ensure that visualizations and analytic tools are useful for stakeholders.