1. Storytelling With
Maps
Module: Storytelling for Cultural Organisations

2. Digital Maps 1
• Digital maps are a gateway to discover the physical and
cultural world
• Maps transmit spatially-related information, including
oral or written stories about places
• Maps are useful for understanding issues and for solving
real problems
• Maps stimulate the imagination, providing orientation
to places and people (Fox, 2016).
Fox, C., 2016. The Value of Story Mapping for Coastal Managers, Doctoral dissertation,
University of Rhode Island, http://www.edc.uri.edu/mesm/Docs/MajorPapers/Fox_2016.pdf
Image source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wi
ki/File:Great_Salt_Lake_Map.jpg

3. Digital Maps 2
• Maps offer a visual model that helps to organise thoughts
• Maps help you tell a clear, compelling story
• They encourage communication about aspects in the story
• Maps can highlight the questions and answers that anchor a
presentation
• Maps provides a clear visual reference for identifying information
gaps and exploring potential new directions
Image source:
https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1569701

4. Visualisation Research
(Lee et al., 2015)
• Storytelling with maps encourages visualisation as a medium to
tell compelling stories
• Story elements can be visualised to support intended messages
• Visualisation provides design elements that form a story and
presentation methods that are used to “tell” it
• Data visualisation contributes to communication and information
presentation
Lee, B., Riche, N.H., Isenberg, P. and Carpendale, S., 2015. More than Telling a Story: A Closer Look at the
Process of Transforming Data into Visually Shared Stories. IEEE computer graphics and applications,
35(5), 84-90

5. Visualisation Techniques 1
Image Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Social_
Network_Analysis_Visualization.png
• Visualisation can include annotations as
labels, pointers, text, or narration to
clearly highlight and emphasize the
message, and to avoid ambiguity.
• Story pieces can be presented in a
meaningful order and connections made
between them to support high-level
communication.

6. Visualisation Techniques 2
• Boy et al. (2015) used narrative visualisation techniques
• Information visualisation was both interactive and exploratory
• Maps can be used as creative tools where findings can be presented and
share their findings.
• Making your own StoryMap helps demonstrate your understanding of the
subject matter.
• StoryMaps can be used to plan, summarise, and write your own main ideas,
issues, problems, characters, setting, and plot for a story.
Boy, J., Detienne, F. and Fekete, J.D., 2015, Storytelling in Information Visualizations: Does it Engage Users to Explore
Data? In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1449-1458. ACM.

7. For example: the use of a photo gallery and map encourages exploration and
questioning Image Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ecologywa/33166246473/

8. World Heritage Sites
https://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2017/world-heritage/
For example: digital
magazine

9. Congratulations!
You have successfully
completed this
presentation
Storytelling for Cultural Organisations