What is map as a question?

You may already be familiar with our Community Heatmap, which allows respondents to drop a pin on a particular location and then respond to a number of questions related to that location.

'Map as a question' brings this map functionality into any page, by setting up the pin drop as a discrete question within the survey flow.

This feature can also be used to enable hidden comments functionality for map comments.

It is also possible to invite respondents to draw a line or draw a polygon, rather than simply drop a pin.

Use 'drop a pin' when you're looking for respondents to nominate locations for small improvements like electric charging points, pocket parks, bicycle parking hangers.

Use 'draw a line' for situations where you want respondents to map their routes or propose new routes, say for buses, cycle lanes, or, say walking paths through a park.

Use 'draw a polygon' where you wish respondents to nominate places or sites for development, for example in a local plan call for sites process.

In order to enable use of 'map as a question' on your Commonplace, pop an email over to customers@commonplace.is and we'll get you set up.

How to create map as a question

1. You must create a regular map which will be embedded in the survey. This map will be hidden from your landing page and from the Have Your Say page. To do this:

   1. Enter edit mode

   2. Click on the dropdown menu on the top bar

   3. Select Add page

   4. Select Map. Click here for the video on how to create a map tile.

2. You can then add some information in the available fields, clearly indicating that this map will be used for your Map as a question. You can edit this map visually in the same way you would edit a regular map survey, by setting the centroid, zoom level, and adding any points or boundaries to the map to indicate where/how you want your end users to respond. Please get in touch with your CSM or our Customer Support team if you are unsure of how to do this. Also, note that you will not be able to add data layers (such as pins with hover panels) to this map.

3. Once your map has been built and saved, you can go back to the survey where you would like to add the map as a question, drag and drop the question type titled "Map" to the mobile phone screen in edit mode, fill out the information about the question on the right hand side of the page, and then select the map tile built in step 1 in the dropdown menu of Map page. Once this is done, hit the Save button.

4. You can then ask the Customer Support team to hide the dummy maps for you from the landing page and from the Have Your Say page.
   

Make sure to use each “map as a question” map only once. If you are adding more than one map as a question to your survey, you will need to create one map for each question. The maps created to be used in the question cannot be used for any other purposes (e.g. navigational map, survey map, or informational map).

Further support

Still unsure about anything? There's lots more information here on the Commonplace Help Centre - alternatively, contact the support team and we'll be happy to help 👋