this week’s training was on storymaps. after working on the training and stroymaps for my project, I would say I am pretty comfortable with helping someone use the tool.
I would say that this tool is great at incorporating many of arcgis’ other tools and helping collate information into a readable and interactive format. it is quite lacking in layout options – you can’t change the position of buttons – for example. and quite inconsistent as well, you can change the layout of maps and images, but not timelines or sidecars.
accessibility wise, I think that thinking about colors and contrast as well as the readability of text is important. I also think that adding navigation options – like Quicklinks in for headers make navigation easier and sites created using the tool more accessible as well.
from the storymaps gallery and how to make an awful storymaps, I noticed that good storymaps are consistent, don’t use unsightly colors and are engaging. one thing to avoid is mixing and matching image formats – galleries and inline images – and making sure buttons and links work.
now that I know more about the platform, I can continue to work on each map for the project with more knowledge and confidence.
ciao 🙂
⋆˙⟡ steph