Digital Mapping Tool
Let’s Create our Own Map on Google Maps
Please keep in mind the following aspects before you start:
- Determine key information that your map should include. For example, are you looking to map areas where the majority of you target population lives, works, congregates? Do you want to identify partner agencies? Do you want to plot areas in your service region that have a high HIV prevalence? Asking yourself questions such as these will help you collect the most useful information for your program and your map.
- Determine the appropriate geographical scope to be covered in the process (e.g., countywide, statewide, organizational service area)
- Collect the data (e.g., existing U.S. census data, primary research data from focus groups, survey information you have collected in the past)
- Create maps (e.g., maps with locations of client housing and community assets such as churches, social clubs, local grocery stores, laundromats).
- Highlight outreach program activities: You may want to incorporate specific elements of your outreach program onto your geographical wall map, like using different colored flags or dots to represent first-time visits versus follow-ups etc.
VII.1. Step by step instructions to create your own map on Google maps
- Open Google maps. Go to maps.google.com. Click on My Maps.
- Open Google Maps and click the menu button in the top left corner.
- ClickYour Places > Maps > Create Map.
- You will need to sign-in with a Google account.
- Enter a title and description for your map into the appropriate fields.
- You can decide to make the map public or unlisted. Public maps are published in search results and available for anyone on the internet to see.
- Click the Save button when you are done.
- You can create site makers on your map to indicate important locations of interest by clicking on the balloon icon.
- Enter a title and description of your site marker and click OK.
- You can add walking, biking, or driving paths between two destinations.
- You can also edit the color and shape of the marker by clicking on the balloon icon within the pop-up bubble.
- You can also mark off regions on your map by clicking on the drop-down arrow within the line icon.
- Click on the draw a shape option.
- Enter a title and description of your site marker and click OK.
- You can also edit the color and shape of the region by clicking on the box icon within the pop-up bubble.
- You can also add additional layers by clicking on the Add Layer Button. This is useful if you’re creating a very dense map with lots of features and paths.
VII.2. Example map for HIV prevention in Washington DC
Looking at the AIDSvu map service in Washington DC, I decided to compare the HIV prevalence between the different zip codes, then I went over the high prevalence ones and looked at testing sites within the areas, then tried to find Ryan White HIV/AIDS medical providers in these communities.
Finally, I chose 20012 as an example for this map since there is no testing sites listed in that zip code and only one medical provider right at the north west corner of it.
- Open Google maps. Go to maps.google.com. Click on My Maps.
- Open Google Maps and click the menu button in the top left corner.
- Click Your Places > Maps > Create Map.
- You will need to sign-in with a Google account.
- Enter a title: HIV prevention Intervention 20012 and Description: Outreach event for HIV and sexual health for 20012 zip code in Washington DC
- Taking an example of the 20012-zip code map at AIDSvu or google maps I draw a map of the area using draw a line>add line or shape from the menu.
- Once the starter line and the end line coincide, we will have a polygon that could be named and filled out with color and choose a border width.
- Looking at the map for possible partners I found Fort Stevens recreation center and I chose it for one of three family and health events, I picked an icon with a tent on it and chose an orange color to identify events, then I did the same with Lowell Scholl all the way north and Tacoma education Campus on the east.
- I need some booth with a lot of information spread out on that zip code then I picked one at the southern corner of the Rock Greek golf course, another one north on Meadowbrook local park and a third at a park by Walter Reed, then I chose a star icon and a yellow color to identify them.
- Then I created some walking routes for the outreach form with the information booths to the events.
Please look at this step by step video of how we created this map for the 20012 zip code prevention event.
Knowledge of the area and the community that lives in that zip code would help to enrich this map with more ideas, partnerships and activities, this example helps illustrate the usage of mapping in the design of interventions for HIV prevention.
VII.3. How to import information from a spreadsheet to your map
You can import a list of addresses or locations into your map following these steps:
- Prepare your info
Make sure your info is one of these file types:
- CSV
- TSV
- KML
- KMZ
- GPX
- XLSX
- Google Sheet
- One or more photos in Google Drive or Google Photos
Unzipped KML and KML files can be up to 5MB.
Other files can be up to 40MB.
If the file isn’t in a photo, the first row should contain titles. To import data properly, make sure you have a column with one of the following:
- Latitude-longitude information
- Addresses
- Place names
Don’t import files with more than 2,000 rows. You can only import up to 100 photos at a time
- Import the info into the map
- On your computer, sign in to My Maps.
- Open or create a map.
- In the map legend, click Add layer.
- Give the new layer a name.
- Under the new layer, click Import.
- Choose or upload the file or photos containing your info, then click Select.
- Map features are added automatically.
You can follow the steps in this video to import Data from a spreadsheet into your map
