Narrate and Navigate your Journey with ArcGIS StoryMaps

Posted by Randee Miller,

Take advantage of one of Esri’s best marketing tools, ArcGIS StoryMaps. Whether you are advertising your products, selling property, advocating for a cause, or even wanting to provide your company’s background, StoryMaps has it all. Working in an Enterprise environment? No worries, ArcGIS StoryMaps is available to you, too!

Telling Your Story

For this article, I have collected some examples of how to use StoryMaps to grow your company, impact your community, or share information! Most of the stories below are from Esri’s StoryMap Gallery. We will start with one from a project I created for a client on marketing an advantage site for an airport.

Marketing Property

Last year, I worked on a project with Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport. Their top priority was to have a customized application that would be user-friendly, engaging to end users, and able to answer questions. What better application for leveraging GIS and marketing an advantage site than ArcGIS StoryMaps? Below is a video showcasing Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport’s StoryMap.

If you would like to read about the work conducted for this project, please check out the article “ESRI StoryMaps Take GPT Airport to New Heights” or view the StoryMap here.

School Lunches

Do you work at a public school and have heard about the USDA’s 21st-century school nutrition policies? This StoryMap discusses the impacts of the mandated policy and all the factors involved in raising the standards of quality food in school cafeterias across the United States. This StoryMap is very well structured and a great example of sharing the importance of healthy food, funding for children to receive a free lunch, and its impacts on families and schools while having great visuals for understanding.

Go to StoryMap here.

Change in Time

There is a spatial temporal component to ArcGIS StoryMaps.To leverage this capability, you must have temporal data with a time attribute. Esri published an article on “Showing time in ArcGIS StoryMaps” with very useful documentation and resources on different ways to add this capability to your ArcGIS StoryMap. Below is a fantastic StoryMap displaying some capabilities for leveraging temporal data that Esri’s StoryMap Team put together. This StoryMap is not only incredible, visually––it shows you how you can display temporal data in 2D and 3D.

Go to StoryMap here.

Need help with configuring rasters to leverage the temporal aspect? Check out my article on “Conquer Space and Time with Spatiotemporal Rasters.”

Football

Yes, you read it right––football! This StoryMap was created by Cooper Thomas in November 2021 comparing the popularity of professional vs college football for the lower 48. This is a short StoryMap, but not only is it well laid out, you can visually see the concentration of the fans per state. It also allows you to get quick information and see spatial patterns.

Go to StoryMap here.

Esri Resources and Updates

ArcGIS StoryMap Training

After looking through the above StoryMaps, do you feel inspired to create your own? Take a look at this helpful guide by Allen Carroll, from Esri’s StoryMaps team on “Getting started with ArcGIS StoryMaps.” It has useful tips to get you headed in the right direction.

Esri also has free resources (if you have maintenance) in their Course Catalog that are a great starting point. See some resources below to help you become an author of your own story.

Also, here is a Learning Plan with two free courses and one paid that is instructor-led.

Updates

In June 2023, Esri released the updates they have recently made to ArcGIS StoryMaps for ArcGIS Online! Below is a list of updates based on Esri’s article “What’s new in ArcGIS StoryMaps.”

For my Enterprise Users, here is “What’s New in ArcGIS StoryMaps on ArcGIS Enterprise!” Some of the great updates include:

  • Storytelling features – Image Editor, Slideshow enhancements, Filmstrip layout, etc.
  • Mapping – Add images from the web, map tour enhancement, and interact with floor-aware maps.
  • Themes and Collections – theme’s default basemap, autoplay your collections, and set the language on your collection.

Calling all Storytellers

StoryMap Competitions

Have you created a StoryMap you are proud of and would like to enter into Esri’s 2023 ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition?! Esri and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are hosting a StoryMap competition that focuses on restoration and conservation of the Earth’s land and waters.

Make sure you register before October 27, 2023, 5:00 pm PT!! Some important dates to be aware of if you want to join the competition:

  • Submission Deadline – October 27, 2023, 5:00 p.m. (PT)
  • Finalists Announced – November 15, 2023
  • Winners Announced – December 14, 2023

ArcGIS Online Competition

Do you have a high schooler (gr. 9- 12) or middle schooler (gr. 4-8) who is interested in ArcGIS and would like to compete?! This year, GEO Jobe will be coordinating the Mississippi Competition, working with local schools in gaining access to Esri’s software and getting information to students about the competition. If you are interested, state team leaders must apply by December 2023 to enroll the state in the competition for teachers and students to participate. 

If you don’t have ArcGIS Online at your school, no worries! Esri has you covered by offering all K-12 schools (public, nonpublic, and homeschoolers) and youth-serving clubs in the U.S. an ArcGIS School Bundle for free. For more information on this amazing bundle, please see esri.com/schools.

Below are important deadlines you need to know for the ArcGIS Online Competition:

  • Final day for states to apply to participate – December 1, 2023
  • Deadline for states to submit entries to Esri – May 13, 2024
  • Esri announces 2024 results – May 28, 2024
  • Competition Results Webinar24 Competition – June 20, 2024

Staying Connected

Can’t get enough of Esri’s amazing storytelling tool? If you sat in the recent webinar hosted by Esri, showing users how easy it is to create a StoryMap, Ross Doninue, Allen Carroll, and Andria Olson gave a live presentation going step-by-step on how to create a StoryMap. They did a great job and it was very informative. If you are new to the game, I highly recommend signing up for ArcGIS StoryMaps news so you don’t miss the next webinar!

Join the Esri Community for StoryMaps to help solve problems, exchange ideas with others, or even find answers to any questions you may have. If you have any specific questions, Esri has also compiled Frequently Asked Questions just for ArcGIS StoryMaps.

You can also follow on Twitter @ArcGISStoryMaps!

Want to read more of our articles? Check out these that may interest you!

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Deputy Director of GIS Services

Randee is part of our GIS Services and loves to help our clients! Randee configures Esri’s out-of-the-box applications such as Experience Builder, Web App Builder, Story Maps, Survey123, Field Maps, Operations Dashboard, and so much more. During her free time, she enjoys being outdoors and spending time with her family!