Creating a Story Map

Story Maps are web applications that allow you to combine the functionality of interactive maps with multimedia content (photos, videos, audio, timelines) into one unique app. Check out the possibilities here: http://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/app-list/

Clemson students with support from CCGT have created their own story maps: http://www.clemsongis.org/projects (check out Planning for Tomorrow's Climate, Mapping Tigertown, and participate in Mapping the Tiger Spirit, and the Clemson Safety Survey)

Story maps are templates of code ready to use to consume your interactive maps and combine them with powerful stories, graphics, videos, photos and other digital media. Some of them, such as the Side Accordion, will need for you to download the code and customize it a little. I encourage you to do this since it is very powerful and not as intimidating as it sounds. Click on learn more to choose and download the template, as well as accessing the tutorial.

Crafting Your Story and Communicating Science Effectively

There are a number of things to consider when communicating your research to make it powerful, impacting, and memorable.

    • Tell a captivating story that is engaging and relevant to the audience

    • Make it personal and articulate why people should care about the science

    • Engaging the public, whenever possible, helps scientists make informed decisions

Create a Story Map

In this tutorial, we are going to create a story map that combines the three maps you created earlier.

- Go to My Content, then choose one of your maps (for example: Co2 Emissions), click on the inverted arrow to Open in map viewer.

- Then Click on Share button in the top menu. Always make sure you map is shared with the public,

and all the sharing properties for the layers are updated. Click on the Create a Web App button

Notice all the possible templates.

- At the bottom, Click on Page 4 and Choose Story Map Journal and click on Create Web App .

- Enter the Title (Climate Story Map Demo by YourInitials), Tags, Summary for your Story Map and click Done

- Click Start

Configure your story map

You will see a new window of Map Journal Builder, follow the following steps to configure your story map:

1. Choose Side Panel. Click Start. Enter the title for your story journal - "Climate Data Maps". Click the Forward arrow to start editing your story map.

2. After this, you should be able to see two different sections of your story map: Main Stage and Side Panel. For every stop in your map journal, you will have a main stage and a side panel.

- STOP 1: Landing Page

  • MAIN STAGE: You should be asked to enter the content for your Main Stage, you can add a map , image, video or webpage.In this case we will add a image ( Always start your story map with a picture/v to attract the audience)

      • Click on Image then choose URL:

      • Go to google.com and search for images for climate change. Find a good quality image and open it. Right click on that image and Copy image address

      • Paste the URL copied to your main stage content image window. Leave it as Fill.

  • SIDE PANEL: Then, you should be asked to fill the content for Side Panel

    • You can enter the text for your related map or you can search on google.com and get information from there. Make sure you always give credits to the source. Here is an example: https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

    • You can also add an image to the content by clicking on the camera icon in the menu and paste the URL of the image. Click Save

- STOP 2: CO2 Emissions

To add a new Section - Click on the ADD SECTION button at the bottom left of your page.

  • You should be asked to enter the content for your Main Stage, you can add a map , image, video or webpage

    • Enter the title for this section: CO2 Emissions per country

    • In this section we will add a map we created, so click on the drop down menu after Map and choose the Map you created : CO2 Emissions in Metric Tons Per Capita

    • Leave the settings default.

  • Then, you should be asked to fill the content for Side Panel

    • Let's embed a website from NASA that has a quiz about CO2. In the Side Panel window, select the Insert an image, video or web page button. In the Media section, click the Web page button and add this link: https://climate.nasa.gov/quizzes/quiz-co2/

    • Configure the Position to Custom and select 700 as the height of the frame. Click Apply and Save.

- STOP 3: Sea Level Rise

Following the steps shown earlier, create a stop with the Sea Level Rise web map in the main stage and insert a video about sea level rise by NASA (click on Embed and copy the code, then change the editing mode in the side panel to HTML and paste the code:

<iframe src="https://embed.theguardian.com/embed/video/science/video/2015/aug/28/nasa-sea-levels-rising-human-climate-change-video" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Changing the settings for the layout of your story map

To change the layout of your story map, Click on the Settings in the Top Menu of your Map journal builder. A new window will open and you will able to see the tabs for changing the Layout, Layout Options, Theme, Fonts, and Header.

- Layout - Under this tab, you have two options for the panel: Side Panel or Floating. Choose the one you think will work for your story.

- Layout Options - Under this tab, you can change the position of your side panel from left to right and you can change size of your panel and mainstage ( Small, Medium or Large). This is totally on you whichever you think will work best.

- Theme - Under this tab, you can change the color theme for your story.

- Fonts - Under this tab, you can choose the type of font you want to have for your Section title and Section Content.

- Header - This tab allows you to change the header for your story. You can change the logo, customize the link or share your story on facebook/twitter or create bit.ly link.

Once you have everything configured, click Apply.

On the top right corner of your story map, click Save and make sure it is public.

Once you saved it, in the top menu click on Share. This will provide you with a link to your story map. For example : http://arcg.is/2mrGgrK

You can also embed the story map on your website but due to default layout settings of the story maps, they look better on a web browser.

Filling out the Item Details

When sharing your story map, a variety of metadata (that is, information about something) will be visible that can impact how professional your story map appears. For example, if you share your story map on Facebook or Twitter, there is a thumbnail image and summary of your story map that gets embedded into the post. Taking a few minutes to complete these details goes a long way to making a polished final product.

1. Open a new browser tab while keeping the home page of your story map open. Navigate to www.arcgis.com, and log in once again. Then click on Content at the top of the page.

2. Click on your story map item. This will take you to the Overview page.

3. Click on Add a brief summary about the item. Enter a sentence or two which summarizes the theme, purpose, and creators of the story map, for example:

A story map communicating the effect of rising sea levels and CO2 emissions, by *Your Name*.

Click Save.

4. Click on Add an in-depth description of the item. Here you should enter several sentences about the story map. This should contain details about who has created the story map, it's intent and themes, a description of data sources, the timeliness of data, etc.

5. Switch to the tab with your story map. Using the snipping tool or screen capture, get a screenshot of your story map's cover page and save it as a JPEG or PNG.

6. Switch back to your Content browser tab. Click on Edit Thumbnail and upload the screenshot. This will complete the basic information for your story map.

Best Practices

A few tips to help you on your way are below, or refer to this story map for pointers:

    • Make your title short, informative, and intriguing, but not vague

    • Cover pages should have high resolution media

    • Upload your own images into the story maps to ensure the content does not go away over time

    • Customizing links and logos makes your product more polished

    • Ensure sharing is updated so your work is viewable

    • Add a section for References or Works Cited, as your instructor requires. This will list all sources of information -- text, images, videos, websites, books, etc, as in the sample below.

A Final Word on Sharing Your Content

All of the maps that you saved in your Content section (as well as any datasets you upload and story maps you create) have different levels of access privileges. When you first create an item such as a map, it is only visible to you by default. You can make the item visible to various levels, which include:

    • Private - the item is only visible to your account. You must be logged in to ArcGIS Online to view the item.

    • Group - a group is a way of sharing items with specific users on ArcGIS Online. They are very useful for working on group projects!

    • Organization - anyone with an organizational account, such as Clemson University login, can see your item.

    • Public - anyone can see your items, even if they do not have an ArcGIS Online account.

You can utilize the Private and Group sharing settings while constructing maps and story maps before they are ready to present. All of your content should be set to Public when you are finished to ensure it can be accessed!