How can I use maps in my storytelling?

Maps add important depth and dimension to stories by connecting your audience to the narrative by enriching the multimedia experience. Maps efficiently convey a wealth of information, revealing patterns and relationships that other media cannot fully describe.

Check out the Why maps? skills lab article to learn more about the value of maps in storytelling.

What are ready-to-use maps and how are they used?

StoryMaps comes with a curated library of pre-designed maps you can leverage to give your story more personality, or to inject some more sophisticated data if it’s relevant to your story topic. This curated content is from Esri’s Living Atlas of the World. 

These maps can be used as a quick and easy way to add geographic context to your story without the need to create your own map.

What kinds of ready-to-use maps are available in StoryMaps?

The ready-to-use maps collection includes categories like history, geography, basemaps, and environment & climate.

Some ready-to-use maps include live data layers that display things like current wildfires or weather. Other maps have data layers that show demographic distributions, wildlife migration patterns, or light pollution.

Other ready-to-use maps are more focused on cartography and visualizing the world in creative and artistic ways.

How can I get started?

For a guide on how to add ready-to-use maps in your stories, check out this knowledge base article, Make maps – Add a ready-to-use map.