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Introducing mapPAK

When you start an online map, use the right tool for the job.

On the easy end of interactive mapping, BatchGeo or ESRI StoryMaps can get your points on a map. But their functionality is ultimately a dead-end. You won’t even be able to share a link with your name on it. A bit more feature-sophisticated, Tableau Public has the same problems.
And CARTO can be slick, but it will set you back a cool $2400/year. (kk nothanx?)
words: "map pak"
"running on Mapbox"

We think Mapbox might be the best solution out there. It’s an open-source library built on Leaflet.js, and its customizability is unrivaled. As a new service from the studio: you can skip a week of learning to set it up, we’ll package all that. We will get you mapping events right away for a one-time, fixed $120 fee.

Think of it as your IT drop-in help! The downside to MapboxGL.js is the learning curve: Mapbox can only speak in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). And while any backend can store this data, who wants to worry about backend servers when you are just getting started? We’re fans of simplicity. We don’t know anyone who loves speaking in JSON. So that’s why auut studio created the mapPAK.

We will setup your Mapbox account and an API key, provide a working starter map, plus our own quick 500 lines of code to let it translate your private Google Sheet into its preferred JSON format.

an illustrated diagram showing that mapPAK acts as a bridge between Google Sheets and Mapbox.JS

A mapPAK is the best of both worlds: the ease (and ubiquity) of Google Docs, all the future flexibility of Mapbox.

Over time, you can build out any functionality you might want your map to have.

What’s inside the PAK:

small logo with a paper elephant standing atop a blue package box

Our studio will register and configure your new Mapbox account

We will initialize your account’s API key with the right permissions

(An API key is your ‘authorization code’ to make server requests to the Mapbox service.)

Mapbox operates on a freemium model. And the Free Tier is extremely generous: your map can be loaded 50,000 times each month and still remain free. This is more than plenty for most cases, unless you go trending on Twitter (which is a good problem to have!)

Read more about Mapbox accounts »

We’ll ask you to pick out an aesthetic for the basemap, or specify your branded colors, so that we can provide a basic level of styling for you right away

For the fixed fee, we have to limit our design time to 1 hour… but over time, you can always customize this further. Even by yourself!

We provide you with the interface to run our special script (500 lines of code) that bridges the world of Google Docs to the web format of JSON. Whenever you want your map to show your latest data, just push a button.

See a screenshot of this interface »

We will take any Google Sheet of yours, where you remain the owner, and configure the columns that will be needed to ‘talk’ to a map

If you already have geocoordinates, great! Otherwise your data will need a street address + state (+ country), and our script can have Google calculate the Lat/Long for you.

See an example spreadsheet here »

We’ll fill in a code template for a starter map, with all the HTML and Javascript already working. It will display a clean-looking map centered on your region, ready to display all the pins in your data sheet.

We’ll publish your new map with a custom URL:  <yourproject>.mapt.site …and host it FREE for the next 12 months!

Broadcast your custom mapt.site, or embed the link in other pages, or just integrate the code into your existing site!

To keep hosting your map in Year 2, we guarantee the first renewal price at $18 ($1.50/month, just to cover our costs). Of course at any time, you can take your code and host it elsewhere, and stop renewing with us.

This is $315 in studio services, packaged for only $200 $120 introductory pricing!

illustration of a blue shipping box

Mapbox and a mapPAK puts additional future functionality within reach:

Animate your map to jump or ‘fly’ between pins in succession, to curate a story

If you have hundreds of pins, cluster them in groups when the user zooms out

(Advanced) Synchronize an interactive timeline to your map

See an example »

Elaborately customize your basemap using Mapbox’s tools — either by yourself, or with help from our studio

See what others have made »

(Coming in 2021) Get access to exclusive historical-era basemaps designed by auut studio: e.g. the USA as of 1870, or the USA as of 1910

See how we visualized the 1910 United States»

Click below to order your PAK:

Order form coming soon