Programme
This half-day workshop follows the successful format of the previous MAPII workshops and build on the positive feedback received from their participants. It is planned to be informal and interactive, combining short presentations of the accepted workshop position papers with group discussions, aimed at assisting the authors and other participants with developing their research and design ideas. The workshop also includes a fun hands-on map design activity, during which the participants will work together in small groups on map related tasks.
The more detailed workshop programme is:
- 14:30: Workshop Welcome
- 14:40: Paper Presentations (15+5 minutes each)
- Maps in Games as a Storytelling Medium
Malgorzata Nowicka, Viktorija Bogdanova and Masood Masoodian - Roles of Maps for Players and Developers of Computer Games
Thomas Rist - Mapping Situated Imaginaries: Designing Map-Based Interfaces for Situated Narratives of Mountain Territories
Anna Checola - Reframing Crisis Cartography: A Methodological Framework for Participation
Jakleen Al-Dalal'A and Artemis Skarlatidou - Map-Based Interfaces for Search and Rescue Drones
Fatin Hamid, Daniel Bermúdez-Chinea, Umberto Domani, Marco Matarese, Angelika Peer and Antonella De Angeli
- Maps in Games as a Storytelling Medium
- 16:30: Coffee Break
- 17:00: Hands-on map design activity
- 18:15: Discussion and planning for future directions and outcomes
- 18:30: Workshop ends
Abstracts
Maps in Games as a Storytelling Medium
Malgorzata Nowicka, Viktorija Bogdanova and Masood Masoodian
In recent years, both game narratives and the use of maps in games have been receiving growing attention as topics of interest in game research. However, combining these two topics together and investigating the storytelling role of maps in games has not yet been systematically theorized. The study presented in this paper employs a narrative lens on game cartography, considering mapping inseparable from recounting in the context of games. Through a scoping literature review, we identify the increasing importance of spatial storytelling in games and the corresponding use of maps in their various forms. Moreover, the hierarchical tensions between mapping and touring in gameplay, as well as that of map-makers and map-users of games are revealed and analysed. We conclude that applying the narrative lens uncovers the potential of game playing as an activity that can reconnect the player with the embodied journeys through game cartography and game narratives.
Roles of Maps for Players and Developers of Computer Games
Thomas Rist
In the context of computer games the term map is often a source of confusion as it used for different things. Some board games and early computer games use cartographic maps as the playground within which gameplay unfolds. In this reading, a game map is equated with the spatial extend of the entire game world. As game worlds expanded in size, dimensionality, and detail, players were often limited to viewing and interacting with only small portions of the overall virtual space. This growing complexity necessitated the development of navigational aids to help players orient themselves within these intricate environments. To address this need, game maps – also known as in-game maps or mini-maps – have emerged as essential graphical tools designed to meet specific player information needs, support spatial reasoning, and enhance interaction during gameplay. Game maps provide a condensed, functional representation of the entire game world by selectively visualizing spatially relevant features – such as pathways, objectives, or terrain boundaries – while omitting non-essential details like surface textures or material properties. This process of abstraction allows players to grasp spatial relationships quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, game maps are often thematically enriched, integrating task-specific information directly into their spatial framework. For instance, they may use icons to indicate the positions of friendly or hostile non-player characters (NPCs), colour-coded regions to denote territorial control, or symbolic markers to highlight points of interest. Through such design choices, game maps not only guide navigation but also actively shape player strategies and engagement. While traditionally designed with players in mind, game maps also serve as indispensable tools for developers. In the pre-production phase, for example, cartographic sketches often function as conceptual floor plans, guiding the structural design and spatial organization of individual levels or entire game worlds. These early map drafts help visualize terrain topology, pinpoint key locations where gameplay occurs, define essential pathways, and establish spatial coherence prior to the implementation of final assets. This contribution begins by revisiting the multifaceted roles of maps across both player and developer contexts. Building on this foundation, we explore the emerging potential of integrating maps into AI-assisted level generation processes – where maps can inform, constrain, or evaluate procedural content. Furthermore, we examine how AI-generated game maps can be leveraged to enrich the player experience, offering dynamic, adaptive, or personalized spatial representations that enhance navigation, immersion, and engagement.
Mapping Situated Imaginaries: Designing Map-Based Interfaces for Situated Narratives of Mountain Territories
Anna Checola
This paper explores the role of participatory mapping practices and how they can lead to more representative, situated narratives of territories, particularly in inner areas deemed 'fragile' or 'marginal' from a city-centric perspective. In Italy and across Europe, the representation of territories is often homogenised by standard and dominant imaginaries, exacerbated by the media and territorial policies that ignore local specificities. Drawing on perspectives from critical cartography and interaction design, this work investigates how map-based interfaces can be reimagined as epistemic and relational devices. The case study also presents a study conducted in the Rhine mining area of Germany, where mapping was used in a territory profoundly transformed by mining. Through interactive mapping with communities and various stakeholders, the presenter demonstrates how it can co-produce layers of representations that reflect various, sometimes conflicting, perspectives. The study shows that cartography goes beyond the digital interface and encompasses physical, participatory, and social aspects. It also discusses how cartography and counter-cartography can be used to design map-based interfaces for 'marginal' territories that require supporting negotiation, multiplicity, and open contributions, rather than imposing standardised representations.
Reframing Crisis Cartography: A Methodological Framework for Participation
Jakleen Al-Dalal'A and Artemis Skarlatidou
How might crisis maps speak with, rather than only about, the people who live through environmental health crises? Scientific disease cartographies have long organised uncertainty through recurring spatial functions such as distribution mapping, cluster detection, exposure assessment, prediction, and intervention planning, stabilising crisis as a technical object of knowledge and action. Developed within the interdisciplinary CHRYSES project on mapping environmental health crises through myths and science, this paper examines how scientific, institutional, and participatory cartographies differently construct the meaning of crisis. It follows the circulation of crisis maps beyond scientific domains through map-based interfaces and visualisation systems, where institutional and media representations translate scientific logics into narratives of urgency, governance, and authority. Participatory mappings, in contrast, foreground lived experience, care, and situated knowledge that often remain excluded from formal epidemiological representation. In response, this paper outlines an emerging methodological framework to inform the design of interactive crisis mapping interfaces. Rather than rejecting scientific authority (e.g., in cases where scientific crisis mappings have repeatedly failed to render harm visible, actionable or accountable), the framework interrogates how scientific authority is performed, communicated and operationalised through dominant cartographic conventions. It shows how these conventions often privilege, amongst others, abstraction, visual closure, uncertainty management, mostly at the expense of reflexivity, contextual relevance and public intelligibility. Therefore, our framework repositions mapping as a participatory process rather than a finished technical output by identifying key moments within scientific workflows – data selection, spatial modelling, risk interpretation, and intervention prioritisation – where local knowledge can shape analytical outcomes without compromising scientific rigour. By reframing crisis cartography as an interactive site of negotiation, care, and epistemic plurality, the work opens pathways toward more accountable and socially grounded map-based interfaces for crisis understanding and response.
Map-Based Interfaces for Search and Rescue Drones
Fatin Hamid, Daniel Bermúdez-Chinea, Umberto Domani, Marco Matarese, Angelika Peer and Antonella De Angeli
Professional drone pilots strongly rely on map-based interfaces for planning and navigating Search and Rescue (SAR) missions. Therefore, understanding the challenges pilots face with the system is essential to improve effectiveness during critical operations. To shed some light on this complex interaction setting, we conducted a co-design workshop with six professional pilots from South Tyrol. During the workshop, participants were guided to create realistic scenarios for SAR missions, identify potential problems they may face, and propose solutions. Our preliminary findings highlight two key challenges related to map-based interfaces: 1) imprecise and outdated maps; 2) lack of HQ cartographic data. Different sociotechnical solutions emerged to minimise these problems. They include technological enrichment of unreliable information contained in physical maps, live computation of 3D maps, training, and standardisation.