Smart Mapping

Discover and communicate your data’s stories

Leverage intelligent default, data-driven visualizations and innovative workflows

Smart mapping, Esri's interactive data exploration and mapping software capability, helps you uncover patterns and stories inside your data. No matter where you are in your mapping journey, smart mapping enables you to quickly create beautiful and informative maps.

A dot density map showing percent change in owner occupied housing, with green dots representing greater change and purple dots, less change

Be empowered by smart mapping

Discover stories

Dynamic visualizations encourage data exploration

Communicate effectively

Data-driven visualizations show what's important

Increase productivity

Map styles provide a meaningful starting point

Create high-quality maps

Cartographic intelligence is built into the styles

Increase confidence

Smart workflows intelligently guide map creation

Explore data at the speed of thought

Smart mapping enables interactive data exploration. It is a visual-thinking tool that rewards your curiosity. The interface dynamically visualizes the settings and styles you select, so you can immediately see the results. Streamlined workflows guide your exploration, and one data discovery will quickly lead to another.

A GIF showing a map of Charlotte, North Carolina, shaded in pale tones of purple and blue that become more saturated

Skip ahead to the good choices

Expedite your journey to beautiful and informative maps with smart mapping. Intelligent defaults provide an excellent starting point for visualizing and exploring your data. Rather than leaving you to sort through many options, smart mapping evaluates your data and suggests map styles that work with that type of data. The styles help you uncover patterns by emphasizing what's most important and deemphasizing what's less important.

A map of Maryland showing average daily traffic, with light green lines representing areas with more traffic and dark green lines showing less traffic

Share useful and informative maps

Elevate your maps by building on the work of others. Use color ramps, which are designed by experts in color theory; map symbols that look good at any scale; and symbology that is directly tied to the distribution of your data. Each of these interconnected settings intelligently guides you to create beautiful maps you can confidently share with your audience.

Computer screen showing a green and white city map of St. Louis representing a 2021 Diversity Index

Make data discoveries using map styles

Map styles help you discover and refine your data's story. Many styles are available to visualize different data types in various ways.

In primo piano

Group points into meaningful clusters

Discover patterns previously hidden by grouping points into meaningful clusters.

A dot density map of western Europe with green, blue, pink, and red dots

Observe similarities and differences

Show the magnitude of similarities and differences by varying features' color and size.

A white map of multi-story apartments mapped in Southern California with green circles sized by number of units

Symbolize data by category

Differentiate features by symbolizing them according to their category or type.

Population Change mapped with up or down purple and green arrows to indicate growth or decline of population

Highlight the predominant value

Compare multiple attributes of related data to determine which has the largest value.

Map of Florida with roads and highways highlighted in red and blue

Evenly represent counts with dot density

Equitably represent counts using dots rather than filling an entire polygon with a color.

Population by race/ethnicity mapped using 1 dot for every 200 people in various colors

Explore all styles

Resources

Many resources are available to help you learn how to use smart mapping. If you're new to ArcGIS, you can pair these learning resources with a free trial.

Start mapping and understanding your data

There are many ways to access Esri's mapping capabilities, including cloud-based software as a service (SaaS), self-managed infrastructure, developer tools, and desktop software. Identify how you would like to access the capabilities, and learn more about the corresponding product.

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