About the organisation

About

What is

Map My Say?

Where we live has deep meaning to us. Map My Say helps find out how local spaces are used, how they evoke feelings, memories , experiences and stories for the people who live in and frequent those places.

When it comes to large-scale community projects, it’s the people in those communities that have the greatest knowledge about the spaces in which they live, work and play. But how often do they take the next step, and get involved in community consultation at a local town hall, or write a letter to the local council to discuss the future of the places and spaces they care about?

A better way to engage your communities

Established to reduce the barriers of community engagement, Map My Say is a tool that enables the capture of community sentiments for use in project planning. It’s an interactive, map-based survey tool made for community consultation that crowdsources information directly from community members and unlocks the intelligence and knowledge embedded within local communities.

It’s designed to foster public participation and make it easier for the community to provide knowledge and sentiment that can be used to inform future planning and design decisions of the places, spaces, and communities they care about.

Who is

Map My Say

for?

Map My Say was created to make it easier to engage the community on your next project.

It helps you bridge the gap between the planning and design experts, and those directly impacted by your next project.

Local Government

Local Government planning officers, community development officers and public open space planners: Map My Say will be a powerful tool to inform your community-driven plans.

Planning Consultants

Gather insight and intelligence from those impacted by your project and develop a plan for your client that’s championed by the community themselves. Uncover any sticking points, contentious issues, or potential roadblocks before they occur.

Researchers

Whether you’re enquiring about urban design, built environments, public health schemes, or future planning, Map My Say can be an integral part of mapping the interests and stories in your target areas.

Create

opportunities

for richer

engagement

Map My Say isn’t just another public participatory geographic information system.

Map My Say was developed by researchers at the Australian Urban Design Centre (AUDRC), an independent, interdisciplinary research centre that’s part of the University of Western Australia’s School of Design, in collaboration with key industry partners and professionals in the planning and urban design industry.

It combines interactive community mapping with rigorous, validated health and well-being measures, developed from extensive experience undertaking population surveys. The tool’s features build on AUDRC’s work in developing planning support systems, and utilises their extensive collaborative design experience to gather meaningful insight.

The data it collects is spatialised and converted into useable geospatial data in the back end that can be imported immediately into existing your GIS systems, or turned into visualisations.

Map My Say was developed in collaboration with our partner organisations to create a way to improve community consultation and engagement on urban densification. It’s a tool that opens the doors to real, essential community input.

How

Map My Say

Works

Option 1

Capture community input

The interactive mapping tool lets community members mark the places, spaces and projects they want to talk about.

The tool captures comments, memories, stories, and experiences directly onto a digital map and creates a picture to show the values and uses shared about these places and spaces.

The result is meaningful place-based data that unlocks the intelligence and knowledge of the local community, which can be imported directly into GIS software and set a benchmark for the evaluation of future community impacts.

Option 2

Visualise and test design proposals

The tool allows you to include visualisations of project plans and designs and receive direct community feedback.

Mapping layers and images can be customised to present a range of design ideas for community members to explore and have their say on.

This allows community members to provide input into the designs of future places and spaces, so they have a hand in shaping the community they feel most connected to.

Option 3

Measure health and wellbeing impacts

The design of the built environment is integral to encouraging positive health and well-being outcomes.

We have significant experience in measuring a range of physical, social, and mental health and wellbeing outcomes that provide essential intelligence and knowledge of the immediate population, to help guide planning and design decisions that will shape future health-promoting places and communities.

How your

organisation

can use

Map My Say

Create community-driven building projects

The community shouldn’t be an afterthought on your projects. They are the people living directly in the spaces you are creating, so it’s critical to understand their views, opinions, and stories on the locations in which you’re building. This works in your favour ensuring communities are brought along at every step of your project, making the planning process smoother.

Uncover hidden community sentiment

Map My Say is a response to what community members need. You can use this tool for in-depth community and stakeholder engagement, to inform and develop new masterplans, structure plans, design concepts, policy initiatives, and strategic plans. You are able to uncover insight and intelligence directly from sources you otherwise wouldn’t have access to with a traditional community engagement session.

Boost communication in urban planning and design

Map My Say ensures that everyone involved has the opportunity to have their voice heard. It empowers your community to feel that their interests and opinions matter. With Map My Say, you can create a direct communication link between your project planning team and the people who’ll live with the outcome of your project. And better communication leads to better outcomes – for everyone.

Map My Say

delivers better

project outcomes

As an online tool, Map My Say allows for broad community reach. It can achieve wider input than traditional face-to-face methods; you reach those people who don’t have the time or interest to attend a public meeting.

And importantly, by placing control of access and use of culturally sensitive spatial information in the hands of those impacted by your project, you’re able to protect important traditional knowledge and wisdom. And, you’re able to make better, more informed decisions by understanding the real and immediate views of your communities.

Three key

functions to

improve your

community

engagement

Map My Say allows you to collect important community information at every stage of the planning process.

Values mapping and needs assessment

Gather rich information in the early stages of a planning project, and generate an overview of the planning area, its problems, and its potential.

Map My Say can be used to collect a wide range of data to understand the non-tangible and emotional connections residents have to their current environment: How they value and experience their surroundings; which places people like or dislike; where they would like to see improvements; share stories and memories of places; and identify which places and spaces have cultural, historical, and environmental significance to the community.

Presenting plans and design scenarios

Once your plan is developed, Map My Say can communicate this to the community, and encourage comments and feedback on the design.

The plans can be developed as customised map layers that can be turned on and off, and visualised on a map, allowing respondents to interact with the design proposal and share their opinions, comment, and evaluations. They can suggest alternative ideas and raise questions as they come up. This function is ideal for gathering feedback about plans, or for comparing and prioritising between different alternative scenarios.

Evaluation of urban design projects

Evaluating the impact of implemented plans is something that often gets overlooked. Map My Say provides a tool to assess which parts of your plan are working, which aren’t, and where you need to pay more attention. This evaluation information is essential in the next planning cycle and in informing future development.

To help you, Map My Say can provide a range of questions that can be customised to evaluate the community benefits on your project, including physical health, mental health, and social outcomes.

Contact

Get in touch

Have any questions, or want to know more? If you have an idea for a project using Map My Say, then we want to hear from you.

Get in touch with us using the form below, and we'll be in contact to discuss how Map My Say makes it easy to capture community views and ideas on your projects.