Capture and Share Mental Maps, Perceptions, and Experiences

Using ArcGIS StoryMaps

Use StoryMaps to:

-Add a stronger sense of place to your narrative

-Illustrate spatial relationships

-Add visual appeal and credibility to your ideas

-Embed other Esri applications within

-Present your work


Sketch Mapping & Participatory Mapping

Dissertation Title: Navigating Food Deserts: A Geo-Ethnography of Atlanta Residents' Experiences, Routines, and Perceptions

One way to do this...

Digitizing from paper maps

Atlanta Food Desert Target/Study Area along with participant's mental map, originally sketched on paper then digitized

Understanding the WHY by interviewing for more information

Participant shopped closer to work location

A better way to do this: EXPRESS MAPS

Use Express Maps within StoryMaps to map activity spaces, mental maps, and perform quick qualitative data collection

The goal was to make cartography as simple as possible so anyone can add focused maps at the right time.


Lakeisha's general activity space


Making an Express Map

Why Express Maps are Handy in Qualitative Research (use cases):

If you need to sketch what's in your head or add a quick locator map to your story

Get as detailed as you want, or keep it general. It's a matter of scale.

Helpful to gauge a person's perceived space

Requires little cartographic knowledge

More interactive than static, paper map

Great for showing a route or a sequence of events

Stay inside the StoryMaps framework; no need to hop out to create map in desktop or AGOL


Capture Your Field Notes

Express Maps are also great for adding your own field notes.

Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, Emerson et al., and Tales of the Field, John Van Maanen

In the Field: Participating, Observing, and Jotting Notes

Writing Up Field Notes I: From Field to Desk

Writing Up FIeld Notes: II: Creating Scenes on the Page

Pursuing Members' Meanings

Processing Fieldnotes: Coding and Memoing

Atlanta Food Desert Target/Study Area along with participant's mental map, originally sketched on paper then digitized

Participant shopped closer to work location

Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, Emerson et al., and Tales of the Field, John Van Maanen