Digital Leaders Spotlight: Portal Mais Transparência, Portugal

A finalist in the 2023 WSIS Digital Service Design Special Prize, Portal Mais Transparência is a digital government platform, where citizens can access easy-to-read and updated information on public spending, combining data science and storytelling.

Developed by the Administrative Modernization Agency (AMA) and launched in 2021, it is now a reference resource for monitoring European funds, State and local budgets, and public contracts.

Highlights:

• Transparency+ offers deep insights into government key areas such as:
  • relevant indicators (available on Portuguese open data portal, dados.gov.pt);
  • more effective communication strategies grounded in data visualization, storytelling techniques and accessibility.
• A citizen-centric solution, as its entire design process and implementation relied on diversified civic participation, to guarantee that the roadmap, areas, and information are available according to citizens’ and users’ demands

Impact:

• Engagement of 15 public authorities and respective SMEs
• Offers deep insights into government key areas such as:
  • relevant indicators (available on Portuguese open data portal, dados.gov.pt);
  • more effective communication strategies grounded in data visualization, storytelling techniques and accessibility.

Challenge:

Tabular public data is difficult to explore and audit by citizens. Scarcity of publicly accessible and reliable data decreases trust in Government, also impairing data re-use and consequent economic value and knowledge creation

Solution:

Portal Mais Transparência was developed using an Agile development process, and engaged several civil society and universities involved in the process, namely those that integrate the National Network for Open Administration (  Commission for Access to Administrative Documents;- Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities;-; – Platform of Civil Society Associations; – Independent Commission for monitoring and inspection of Special Measures for Public Procurement; National Association of Young Entrepreneurs). The Portal is managed by a cross-sectoral team of the Portuguese public sector under the coordination of AMA.

Key components of digital service

Analytics – Transparency+ is mostly based on visualization and rendering of data providing tools to invite portal visitors to explore and discover information. Since all information is based in datasets available as open data, the feeds must pass through previous analysis for quality and integrity checking, before building or updating visuals. Data owners are notified of data inconsistency an invited to submit updated datasets.

UI/UX – Navigation is done using a modern tailored made user interface (UI) that adapts to the volume of data of each topic. Pages are prototyped and tested with end users to ensure maximum usability. Solution has been rated “Gold” for accessibility.

To learn more about building blocks, visit the GovStack Specifications

SDGs and WSIS Action Lines addressed: