What is the difference between an ArcGIS Online web app and an ArcGIS StoryMap?
ArcGIS StoryMaps helps you tell remarkable stories with custom maps that inform and inspire. A story can effect change, influence opinion, and create awareness—and maps are an integral part of storytelling. ArcGIS StoryMaps can give your narrative a stronger sense of place, illustrate spatial relationships, and add visual appeal and credibility to your ideas. Use our simple map maker to create custom maps to enhance your digital storytelling. Or add text, photos, and videos to your existing ArcGIS web maps and web scenes to create an interactive narrative that’s easy to publish and share.
Content in this section was adapted from “ArcGIS StoryMaps: Overview” (ESRI.com)
Web apps allow you to build 2D and 3D web apps without writing a single line of code. It includes powerful tools to configure fully featured HTML apps. As you add your map and tools, you can see them in the app, and use them right away.
A published web app is based on a map authored with Map Viewer. Any changes the author makes to the map, including its extent, layers, description, and so on, are reflected in the web app. If a map that was available to everyone in the organization is made private (or deleted), the map no longer appears in the app.
Content in this section was adapted from “Create Apps from Maps” (ArcGIS.com)
How do I decide if a web app or a StoryMap is the best fit for my project?
A StoryMap is true to the name–it’s a story that is narrative driven. You might be able to inject some non-linear elements, or some non-linear browsing options. But the StoryMaps format is designed to move the user through some kind of quasi-linear narrative experience.
StoryMaps work best for projects that want to include:
- Significant textual elements
- Linear or quasi-linear elements
- A narrative arc
- Additional background research or contextual information you want to display alongside maps and other media
Web apps are more geared toward being interactive, exploratory interfaces for browsing and searching. Widgets allow you to customize the web app to provide custom search, filter, and view options. But the format is structured more as a dashboard than a linear narrative.
Web apps work best for projects that want to include:
- Limited accompanying text
- A highly-interactive, exploratory user interface
- Robust searching and filtering user options
What If I want both?
Think strategically about what you want specific map visualizations and interfaces to accomplish. Who is the audience, and what do you want to communicate to that audience?
WebApps and StoryMaps can exist in conversation with each other (Mapping LGBTQ+ St. Louis out of Washington University St. Louis is an example). But they do different things in terms of communicating your data and project.
Browsing the galleries of web apps (instant apps and Experience Builder apps) and StoryMaps will help you identify differences across the platforms and make informed choices for your project.
