Resources for Narrative Mapping
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Esri ArcGIS Storymaps
Esri ArcGIS Storymaps is a popular service for creating a narrative map with a website feel. Note that Esri ArcGIS Storymaps differs from their new product StoryMaps, which is basically just a glorified social media story. ArcGIS Storymaps has a low learning curve. If you are faculty or student at UBC, you can learn more about obtaining access here.
Storymaps Advantages ⇡
- Straightforward to learn, with easy drag-and-drop components
- Produces aesthetic out-of-the box visuals
- Can contain multimedia, including images, audio, and static maps as well as dynamic maps made with ArcGIS Online
- See Esri’s Introduction to ArcGIS Storymaps to get started.
Storymaps Disadvantages ⇣
- ArcGIS Online is proprietary, meaning it is not free to use
- Licensing is a hassle, and collaboration can only occur between people who both own an active license
- Once your license lapses, your project will disappear
- You have to make all the maps and graphics yourself, the Storymap is simply the aesthetic container that gathers all the components together
Examples
Knightlab StoryMap
Knightlab StoryMap JS is a free and open-source alternative to ArcGIS Storymaps. It is incredibly easy to use and can handle a variety of multimedia. You can also create a timeline with Knightlab Timeline.
Examples
Resources for working with Knightlab StoryMap
- Video introduction to knightlab StoryMap by Cara Marta Messina
- Workshop on knightlab by Victoria Longfield from Hope College
- Another Workshop on knightlab StoryMap by Gettysburg College
- A video workshop on knightlab’s Storymaps by Dr. Anne Ladyem McDivitt of the Alabama Digital Humanities Center
- Tutorial on displaying a georeferenced map on knightlab
- Tutorial for making storymap with Knightlab Storymap JS - Barnard
- Tutorial for making timeline with Knightlab Timeline JS - Barnard
TimeMapper
TimeMapper is another free and open source platform for creating timeline spreadsheet data. TimeMapper is useful if the map is more auxiliary to the timeline. See this example. Purdue University has a tutorial if this is a tool you’re interested in learning.