“Obviously, this blue part over here is the land.” — Buster Bluth, Arrested Development
A map can be an excellent approach for advocacy communications that spur action. It can present data in an easily understandable way, and when structured correctly, with the right information, it can tell a compelling story. Used as an engagement tool for your audience, a map can encourage interaction, crowdsource much-needed data, provide a resource to your community, and change behavior, hearts, and minds.
But what do you need to make a map? And how do you build one that tells a compelling story — one that empowers your audience to move? Let’s dive in.
Most of the time, a map is part of a larger campaign, rarely the campaign itself. A redlining map overlaid with air pollution intensity, for instance, can tell a story all on its own — but the larger question is still what do we do about this? (Policy!) And how can you help? (Call your elected official!) Because we’re communicating to spur change, a map has to go beyond a mere presentation of data. Done right, it can do incredible things:
Tell a Story. Humans have been telling each other stories since the beginning of time, and a map is simply a spatial presentation of a story. Because we have stories in our DNA, they’re far more effective at changing hearts and minds than statistics and data alone.
An example is Break Free From Plastic’s virtual Toxic Tour, which uses an interactive Google Earth map to provide stories from around the globe of how people are impacted throughout the lifecycle of plastic production. They could have listed videos and stories, but the map lets the reader understand the far-reaching global impacts of the plastics crisis.
Crowdsource information. A zero-waste advocacy organization could ask its audience for their favorite local business that reduces waste and promotes a shared economy — getting people involved, collecting data to share with your community, and promoting small businesses, all while teaching people about the role small businesses play in a circular economy.
iNaturalist is a great example of crowdsourcing flora and fauna information from naturalists, birders, and outdoor folks. The app asks users to denote when they find a species and lets other users verify the ID. You can then see what other people in your community have observed — encouraging interaction while collecting data.
Get People Involved. When we encourage our audiences to participate in solving the problems in their own backyard, we empower them to be actors rather than reactors. Asking community members for input on an environmental or social problem can encourage them to get more engaged — maybe even contact their elected officials or write a letter to the editor.
Change Behavior. Wayfinding maps have long been used to encourage more sustainable transportation — for example, prioritizing walk times over drive times, which reduces the reader’s perceived effort (people judge distance by how much work it takes to get somewhere, not by how far it actually is). A map of neighbors who’ve subscribed to community solar provides social proof — this is what my neighbor does, so maybe I should too.
Provide a Resource. A community might want to engage in a more sustainable behavior — recycling batteries, eating vegan more often — but have no idea where to do that. The Happy Cow map, showing all the vegan restaurants in a city via OpenStreetMaps, is a good example of a map doing exactly that.
“Today, map is increasingly an active verb.” — Jack Dangermond, The Power of Where
How to Approach Your Map
As with any good communication, we first need to understand what we’re trying to say, to whom, and what we want them to do with our information.
A good place to start is the 5Ws: who, what, where, when, and why. The answers become the data points for your map.
Let’s work through an example: a local citizen science group is testing streams, rivers, and lakes in Western New York for microplastics. Their goal is to build local support for a state policy to reduce plastic pollution — they want a map to show their data to elected officials to encourage a yes vote, and to community members to educate them and encourage them to act too.
From our 5Ws, we know we need:
- The exact location of each water sampling event
- Results of the water samples — how much plastic was present in each
It would probably also help to have:
- Photos of the results, for more interaction
- Photos of the people or places sampled, which might be more engaging
But could we take it further and tell a story with our map, in addition to providing the data?
Telling Stories With Maps
In his book Telling Stories with Maps, cartographer Allen Carroll recommends structuring an advocacy map using the story spine novelists and screenwriters have used for millennia:
“Once upon a time there was ____.” (A group of concerned citizens.)
“Every day, ____.” (More and more microplastics were entering their waterways — from washing machines shedding polyester fibers into greywater, from tires wearing down into teeny, tiny plastics, from plastic pollution breaking down in the environment. Plastic, plastic everywhere.)
See how we’re starting to build a story? See how our photos might come in handy?
“One day, ____.” (The citizens decided enough was enough. This is the water they depend on for drinking, swimming, relaxing — the streams and rivers they grew up alongside. They wanted action, now, from the state of New York. But the lobbying giants were persuasive and rich, and whispered to elected officials, as they wined and dined them, that plastic pollution simply couldn’t be curbed. They kept saying we just need to recycle more.)
“Because of that, ____.” (The waterways continue to fill with little bits of plastic.)
“Because of that, ____.” (Our bodies fill up with microplastics as we drink and breathe them in.)
But our map is one of empowerment! The people, together, always have the power to topple wrongdoing. And because these are advocacy maps, we can include a call to action, if appropriate!
So — our data map just turned into a story about necessary change. Now we can think about the elements it needs to tell that story: advocacy, getting people involved, encouraging elected officials to act, and maybe even changing behavior as folks become aware of the issue.
Best Practices for Map Making
- Visual contrast between a map’s features and page elements can help tell a story — and place emphasis on the elements you’d most like understood.
- Legibility is key! Use easy-to-read fonts, in a large enough size, with understandable language. Keep your audience in mind — experts might tolerate a more complicated legend, but in general, make it as easy as possible for as many people as possible.
- Hierarchical organization matters. Some features are more important than others — on a microplastics map, individual streets or municipal boundaries likely aren’t needed. Consider what you can de-emphasize to let the important elements stand out.
- Maps should stand on their own, without a lengthy explanation of what they are or what they show.
- Maps should be as user-friendly as possible!!!
Software to Make Maps
- Google Maps and Google Earth — the easiest starting point, free and familiar.
- StoryMapJS — a free tool from Northwestern University’s Knight Lab, built for narratives anchored to location.
- ArcGIS — used by planners, scientists, and technical folks for a long time, and now branching into tools for non-experts, including one built just for story maps. Steeper learning curve, but powerful if you have the time and patience.
If you need help figuring out whether a map is the right call for your data, or how to turn one you already have into something that actually moves people — get in touch.
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