2018–2026
DataOhio: opening the State’s data to the people who use it
DataOhio is where residents, researchers, local governments and policy makers find Ohio’s data, from children’s blood-lead tests updated daily to traffic crashes and the State’s own checkbook. Base22 designed and built the portal, from its first prototype in 2018 through 2026: a catalog anyone can search, and a governed way to request secured data from the agencies that own it. It passed one million dataset views in October 2025.
- 1.5M+
- dataset views, per the portal (September 2026)
- 274
- datasets available
- 118
- programs contributing data
- 2018
- first prototype; launched December 2020
- Client
- State of Ohio · DataOhio
- Industry
- Public sector
- Scope
- UX research · Portal design & build · Data catalog · Governed data access · Ongoing releases
- Platform
- HCL Digital Experience + AWS
- Partnership
- 2018–2026
Challenge
Every day, the Ohio Department of Health publishes blood-lead test results for Ohio’s children on DataOhio, so public health professionals and families can see where lead exposure is happening. Data like this can change decisions, but for years it sat inside dozens of agencies and programs, and much of it cannot be public: some datasets hold information only authorized people may see.
When Governor DeWine put the State on a common technology platform in 2019 (Executive Order 2019-15D), one of the technologies planned for it was the DataOhio Portal, which the State calls the first of its kind in State technology: a window into its secured data-sharing platform that shows public data openly and handles the request, approval and delivery of secured data.
It had to work for very different people: developers building tools on the State’s data, researchers running their own analysis, policy makers who need a clear answer, residents looking something up, and the data owners in each agency, who stay accountable for who sees their data.
Approach
Designed around the people who use data
We started in 2018 with the people: personas for each audience, a site map and a clickable prototype for the State’s data analytics program, before any of it was built.
A catalog anyone can search
Anyone can search the catalog, filter it and open a dataset without an account. Each dataset has a details page with its dates, views and owner, a Visualize tab for building custom charts, and export and share options, while “Made with Ohio Data” shows the research and tools people have built with it.
Secured data, with the owners in control
Secured datasets are requested through the portal, with sign-in through OH|ID, the State’s login. The agency that owns the data approves each request and can grant a whole dataset or only part of it, and administrators follow every request from dashboards. Underneath, one record ties each dataset to its owner and source system, and each request to its requester, purpose and access history.
Improved release after release
The portal launched in December 2020, and we kept improving it through 2026: the Visualize tab, richer dataset pages, self-service publishing so agencies can add their own datasets under governance, performance work and administrator dashboards, and the State’s new brand in 2023. It runs on the InnovateOhio Platform, with its data services on AWS.
Impact
DataOhio was a finalist in the 2021 NASCIO State IT Recognition Awards (Digital Services: Government to Citizen). In October 2025 the State announced that it had passed one million dataset views, from more than 300 datasets across 23 agencies and 116 programs. By September 2026 the portal showed 1,597,454 dataset views.
“Ohioans deserve transparent access to accurate, timely and important information that our state agencies collect to make Ohio a great place to live, work and raise a family.” — Governor Mike DeWine, October 2025
We designed, built and improved the portal from its first prototype in 2018 through 2026, as part of the State’s analytics program team.
