How To Cascade: Multi-View Map

One key feature of the Cascade form is the focus on a guided narrative. Fully interactive visualizations are great -but if you are telling a very specific story, there is risk that your readers won't find what you want them to find.

Cascade stories follow a narrative structure, with visuals (including sweet maps) to support it. Here's how you can set up an Immersive section that walks readers through several views of a single web map. Now that map becomes a scroll-driven tour guide for your story, rather than a potentially intimidating (or easily ignored) open-ended playground. Here's to showing, not hoping!

First, add an Immersive section to your story...

...and choose one of your scintillating web maps.

There it is. A full-bleed map, blown out right to the edges. Humanity is wired to love this. Anyway, if you click the gear button you have some choices.

While you are in the "Appearance" tab, the benevolent Cascade robot is watching, and keeps track of your map view. You can change the location, turn layers on or off, or activate a pop-up. The view you set up is the view your readers will see in your story.

By choosing "Interaction Disabled" you can ensure that your map stays on script. If you welcome some ad-hoc exploration, you could add a "Button to Enable" interaction.

See the film-strip doodad at the bottom? That's where you manage all the views of your map. One view leads to another. You can duplicate a view, then change the appearance of the map to suit your story; change the location, turn layers on or off (transition effects like fade and swipe aren't supported for that, yet), or show a pop-up.

In this way you build up a guided tour of your web map with views that bend to your storytelling will. All your readers have to do is scroll; you, the storyteller, have taken care of the rest.

That's it. Load your web map, set the Appearance, duplicate the view, set the Appearance, duplicate the view, set the appearance, and so on.

Check it out:

Remember, you have the story to tell. People are reading because you have something interesting to show and say. Take advantage of a multi-view map, and ensure your readers are catching what you are throwing.

Happy Cascading!