Story Maps

Social Explorer is a web-based mapping and analytics platform that allows users to explore and visualize historical and current demographic data for the United States. It includes data from the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as from other sources. Social Explorer is a good option fir users who are interested in understanding how demographic trends have changed over time. 

Creating a StoryMap in Social Explorer

1. Click the Tell a Story icon  at the top of the controls located in the bottom-right corner of the screen. 

2. Click Start Your Story to create your story in a presentation-style format.                      

3. Click Add cover in the left-hand side panel to add a cover slide to your story. You can also add a title and a short description to the cover slide. To change the background of the cover slide, click the More icon  next to the slide. You can either upload your own image or paste a link to a video as a background for the cover slide.               

4. To add more slides to your story, click Add new slide. You can also duplicate existing slides to add more slides to your story. When adding a new slide to your story, you can choose from three different viewing modes: single, side by side, and swipe.                              

5. Social Explorer maps serve as the base for Story Editor slides. Click the More icon  next to a slide to add a title and a column of descriptive text to your slides.                                                           

6. To preview your story, click Preview Story in the left-hand sidebar. Click Exit Preview when done. 

7. Click the share icon  at the top of the screen and then click Copy Link to share fully interactive versions of your story maps. You can also export static versions of these stories as a PowerPoint file. Click Export as PowerPoint in the map header.                           

Key Features of MapLibre:

1. Interactive Mapping: Provides tools to render interactive maps in web applications and mobile apps.
2. Custom Styling: Allows full customization of map styles using open formats like Mapbox Style Specification.
3. Open Source: It is free and governed by a transparent and community-driven development process.
4. Cross-Platform:
   • MapLibre GL JS: A JavaScript library for web-based maps.
   • MapLibre Native: Libraries for native mobile applications (iOS and Android).
5. Support for Open Data: Works seamlessly with open geospatial data sources such as OpenStreetMap, vector tiles, and raster data.

Digital Democracy has created a template that uses MapLibre GL JS to create an interactive storymap.

You can fin the storymap template in their GitHub.

If you want to learn how to use the template, follow our online tutorial.

Key Features of StoryMapJS:

1. Location-Based Storytelling:

   • Create narratives anchored to geographic locations on a map.
   • Allows users to navigate through stories by moving between mapped points.

2. Media Integration:

   • Supports embedding images, videos, and other multimedia directly into the story.
   • Provides a rich visual experience to complement the narrative.

3. User-Friendly Interface:

   • Designed for ease of use with minimal technical skills.
   • Features an intuitive editor to add locations, captions, and media.

4. Customization:

   • Offers basic customization of map appearance and markers.
   • Users can control how maps and transitions look and behave.

5. Compatibility:

   • Works seamlessly on desktop and mobile devices, ensuring accessibility.

Key Features of Odyssey:

1. Storytelling with Maps:

   • Designed to help users tell stories through spatial narratives, connecting maps to descriptive text, images, and multimedia.

2. Three Layout Modes:

   • Slide: A step-by-step slideshow format where each slide corresponds to a map view or action.
   • Scroll: Scroll-based navigation where the story unfolds as the user scrolls through the page.
   • Torque: A format optimized for visualizing temporal data changes (e.g., events over time).

3. Integration with Mapping Technologies:

   • Built on top of Carto and Leaflet, Odyssey supports custom map layers, tiles, and visualizations.
   • Enables integration with geospatial datasets hosted on Carto or other platforms.

4. Interactive Elements:

   • Users can embed multimedia (images, videos, and charts) into their stories.
   • Interactive map actions like zooming, panning, and highlighting are triggered by the narrative flow.

5. Customizable and Developer-Friendly:

   • Offers a visual editor for non-technical users.
   • Advanced users can access and modify the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for more complex customizations.

6. Open Source:

   • Freely available for use and modification, encouraging collaborative development and use in education, journalism, and other fields.