Embedding Story Map Journal

[ErinWarford]

Hello,

I have created a story map journal for educational purposes, and embedded it in a website created using Google Sites. This all went smoothly, but I think the story map would be visually much better if the space available for it was wider. The embed gadget appears to have a set width and I do not know enough about web coding to change that. The story map also does not look very good in a mobile format. You cannot view the map and text at the same time, and when displaying the text, the background is slightly transparent (so you can see the map behind it), which makes everything difficult to read.

I tried developing another website using wix.com but this displays even worse. I wondered if others had a better suggestion for how to display a story map journal in a website, especially for mobile platforms. It would be really fantastic if my students could view the story maps on their phones. I have limited web design experience (and no time to learn it) so I am most interested in available templates.

Thank you!

[OwenGeo · Accepted solution]

Hi Erin,

Since the story map itself is an interactive piece of content we don't recommend embedding it in the responsive view of your own website. For the responsive view of your site it's much better if you can have a screenshot link and/or a text link that opens the story up in another tab on the reader's mobile browser. This ensures your readers see the story's responsive view using their screen's full dimensions.

Depending on the amount of space you have available for the story, having a screenshot and link to your story is often the best strategy for the deskop version of your website as well. You can see many examples of embedded and linked stories in our gallery to get ideas about how to do this. 

Gallery | Story Maps 

Scroll down and in the left sidebar you'll see filters for embedded and linked under Format.

Hope this is helpful!

Owen