Maptionnaire is a Finnish start-up that allows users to easily create their own map-based questionnaires and civic participation platforms on a cloud-based software. The software provides crowdsource citizen insight on maps- users ask questions, collect and analyze data, and then collaborate, interact and discuss the data to find answers. Maptionnaire is a leading public participation GIS (PPGIS) research tool that provides many beneficial services and practices for its users including, but not limited to, easy data management, citizen commitment, online civic engagement, and improved planning outcomes.
“The company has its roots in academic research on perceived quality of environments. A field that’s essentially trying to answer questions like “Where are people happy, sad, relaxed, nervous, etc.?” and “Where do they do the things that they do?” Many things have changed since we moved from the academia to the commercial sector, but our slogan is still “When you need to ask where”. Starting the business was a response to the demand on the market: when public institutions in Finland heard about this kind of research, they wanted to apply our mapping methodology to their planning and participation challenges.”
Maptionnaire’s most notable features for mapping local insight comprise cost-efficiency, cloud-based software, customizable maps, visualized results, data that can be easily exported, GIS software, a versatile editor for questions, and support for all devices. Maptionnaire focuses the development of place-based comments and discussions to enable efficient analysis and visualizations that are used to learn new information. The platform uses these four easy steps to get from ideas to infight:
- The user(s) creates a map-based questionnaire;
- The user(s) collects data by using cases that range from highly structured research to open brainstorming;
- The user(s) analyzes and reports the data online in either Maptionnaire or software of choice;
- The user(s) discusses and learns from the data by publishing the results in Maptionnaire.
“Recently, [Maptionnaire] been working on projects limited to fairly small areas that include some indoor spaces as well. For example focusing on university campuses where the buildings consist of several overlaid floorplans (see http://maptionnaire.com/en/931 for a demo). This kind of very precise data reveals the most loved and hated places to real estate managers, or can be used to brainstorm ideas for improvement. Maptionnaire can also be used to talk about forthcoming developments within a small group of stakeholders: it’s very handy to have discussions categorized under locations marked on a map when you need to return to those discussions many months or even years later.”
For over ten years, Maptionnaire has carried out map-based survey research, participatory projects, and consultation for both single projects and as a continuous service with an unlimited number of projects. The company continues to benefit and support a range of public and private institutions and companies in the fields of: urban planning and development, urban safety, public participation, parks and recreation planning, reginal development, academic research, landscape planning, transport planning and mobility, and real estate development.
In the terms of improving the ease of mapping in the future, Maptionnaire “envisions that when the user interfaces and data output are well thought out, it becomes cost-efficient to bring mapping to fields where it is currently not applied systematically. An ambitious mapping project with a big target audience currently requires a considerable number of working hours by software developers. [The company] provides a service that lets anyone create a highly specialized map-based questionnaire. By highly specialized, [they] mean that it’s not just a comments section on a map, but a full-fledged survey and communication tool on a map.”
Maptionnaire also would “like to let readers know that Maptionnaire’s editor is freely accessible. You just need to create a user account and off you go designing a questionnaire. (The cost comes in when you actually want to use a questionnaire for data collection and analysis).”
For more information, visit Maptionnaire’s website at: http://maptionnaire.com/?lang=en#how
Written by: Kathleen Emerson (2/3/16). Updated (2/12/16).