Superbowl Sunday (39/365)

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It’s time for a game of throwball! And as is the tradition on Superbowl Sunday a whole load of people will be tuned in to watch expensive ads and an even more expensive half-time show. And probably more than anything people will eat. They will eat a lot. And probably drink…a lot. The humble avocado will be central to proceedings so here’s a map celebrating the Super Guac-Bowl of guacamole consumption.

Guacamole trends map

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

Sometimes the AI is pretty good with its first attempt. Sometimes it’s better to create the map iteratively before it locks things in place. I took the latter approach here.

  1. Can you make a map of the United States lower 48 states that shows the different rates of guacamole consumption per state.
  2. You’ll need to help me find a source, or a suitable proxy (sales of avocados?) but I like option B that you’re suggesting with proportional guac bowls.
  3. Google trends data sounds fine and the legend should say “estimated servings/person/month”
  4. A time slice of last year’s data would be sufficient. Go ahead and give me a map that looks like proportional guac bowls with a legend that has three indicative sizes.
  5. That’s great, now just add a title in the top right space saying “Super Guac Bowl”
  6. I think the legend could be less tight to the map, and the title be a little more illustrative and fill the space better.
  7. Thanks – great job!

Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (38/365)

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Some days of the year really are marked by the most bizarre ideas but c’mon – ice cream for breakfast. YES! An entire day dedicated to eating ice cream when the heck you want. So you may as well start with a couple of scoops for breakfast. And to celebrate, here’s a map of the most popular flavours around the world. I admit, I thought ‘Ube’ was an AI hallucination but it turns out it’s a Filipino flavour made from the purple yam. And it’s becoming popular in Japan. So there you go! If you can find it, maybe go try it.

Ice Cream Flavours map

Original prompt (ChatGPT)

It’s National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. Time for a fun map that illustrates which flavour of ice cream is preferred by each country on a world map. Please go a little crazy on the artistic elements of this map, and don’t forget to put a ’99 flake Mr Whippy’ cone on there somewhere.

National Wear Red Day (37/365)

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National Wear Red Day is celebrated as a way of promoting awareness of heart health. I was a little lacking in my own ideas for this map so I just asked AI. It gave me around 9 separate draft ideas and I just picked the one I liked the most. Simple. Abstract. Does the job.

Map for wear red day

 

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

I need a world map to celebrate world heart health day which uses the phrase ‘wear red’. I’m lacking ideas so can you create a map that fits this important message to be aware of heart health.

World Nutella Day (36/365)

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Today is one of those daft days – a day celebrating Nutella, that disgusting gooey spread (well, I don’t care for it but I believe others do). Anyway, here’s a map showing where in the world you can and cannot get it.

The first iteration was totally incorrect. I’ve no idea what dataset the AI was trying to use but it showed Australia and New Zealand as not having it. I know that’s wrong so I sourced the actual data from the Nutella site and redirected the AI. Sometimes you need to double check what it’s claiming is correct because, well, often it isn’t.

Nutella availability map

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

Using the Nutella site as a source (https://www.nutella.com/int/en/nutella-around-the-world) please make a world map of countries where you can, and cannot get the nutty chocolate spread Nutella. The map should be artistic with countries that you can buy Nutella spread with thick gooey Nutella goodness. Leave countries where it is not available as bare toast.

World Cancer Day (35/365)

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It’s World Cancer Day.

I decided to create a global map of the leading cause of death by cancer for males and females by country. The data was collected and cleaned using Dataset Doctor GPT. Map created with Web Mapper GPT.

Map of leading cancer causing death among males and females by countryView Map

Web Mapper GPT Prompt

I would like to make a map highlighting the leading cause of death by cancer in each country with data in the attached dataset. This will be for International Cancer Research Day. It should be a serious map, minimalist with a journalistic feel. Quite simple. On desktop, I would like a donut chart showing the number of deaths caused by each type of cancer world wide. Any that fall beneath 8% of total deaths should be included in an “Other Cancer” category. When the user clicks on a country (equal earth projection, please) I would like a pop-up to display showing country name and leading cause cancer cause of death, as well as any death numbers and a source in the popup if possible. Please us a dark background. Color each country by the type of cancer that leads in that country. Up to seven unique colors. The eighth color (if necessary, as I don’t know how many unique types of cancer are in the dataset) should be a gray that represents “Other Type of Cancer”. It will displayed if a user clicks on that country. Countries without data should not be filled in. If possible, since I don’t believe the CSV has geometry, can you link this dataset to a polygon boundaries dataset of countries (e.g., Natural Earth Data?) so it can be a category by color map? Thank you!

 

Dataset Doctor GPT Prompt

Please create a global dataset that provides the type of cancer leading to the most deaths in each country of the world (for which there is data). I’m not sure where this data might live: perhaps the WHO, UN, World Bank, or elsewhere. Please scour high or low. Any data within the past 20 years can be included. If the dataset does not yet have geometry, or is compiled from a bunch of different sources, I would like to link it to Natural Earth data, so please include or add a field that makes it easily joinable. Field examples that would be useful: – Country Name (English) – Most common cancer leading to death (broad categories, simplified… e.g., Lymphoma, not particular types of Lymphoma, etc.) – Count of deaths from this cancer (when available), null if not – Country population estimate (perhaps in Natural Earth data already) – Per Capita GDP (or similar economic indicator data just for context) – any other field data you find relevant – please include ISO country codes too. Thanks! – source – year or years for data Thanks!

Missing Persons Day (34/365)

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On a serious note: it’s National Missing Persons Day.

The United States has a serious problem. People go missing… a lot. And they are often never found. Complicating matters, the FBI reports on national missing persons statistics, but it doesn’t report state-by-state.

Many states create annual reports of missing persons, but they use different statistics and standards. Some differentiate between minors and adults. Others do not.

I asked Dataset Doctor GPT to scour the web for all state reports it could find and create a (semi-) comprehensive state-by-state dataset. It took a while… but after checking in on it a few times, it finally assured me it found all that it could. (I had it search in batches.)

I then asked my other handy GPT agent, Web Mapper GPT, to map the data.

Missing persons reports by stateView Map

Tools Used

Dataset Doctor GPT Prompt

Hi, for national missing persons day, I would like to create a state-by-state dataset of missing person reports. I’ve heard the FBI has a lot of records and there are other public records. The map the dataset will be used for will primarily be designed to build awareness about missing persons and have a rhetorical / empathetic affect, not data exploration or analysis. I envision having statistics such as adults versus juveniles missing, as well as a filter that allows people to view state totals compared to one another using proportional symbols: either adults only, juveniles only, or totals. My ask from you: can you search the web for good sources where I can download or scrape together such a dataset, please? If there is a dataset available, please create a geojson with geometry or shapefile. Clean the dataset to show only State Name, Data Source, relevant counts to my needs, percentages, and any other relevant information to missing persons (e.g., year). The more recent the dataset the better, but anything within the past few years is fine. Thank you! Please report back with existing datasets you have found or places where you think you or I may be able to piecemeal together a dataset to help make this map. I’ll give further instructions from there. Much appreciated!

Web Mapper GPT Prompt

Hi there, I would like to make a national map of missing persons. I have a schema, dataset, and a text file of things to consider and a title for the map. can you help create this for me? Note: it should be mobile first. It should all fit within the window of a mobile device or desktop. The design layout should adapt appropriately depending on the device being used to view the map: e.g., bottom pane info windows for mobile, pop-up mobile windows on desktop, etc. I would love for each state to be symbolized by a donut chart. The donut chart should be proporionately sized by radius on the total number of missing people reported. Then, the donut chart itself should show Juvenile (or up to 18 year olds) missing and Adults 18 and older missing (or similar). There can be an other category too if that is required in some cases. States without data should be represented by a circle symbol that appears like a hole through the base map (e.g., a white background in the middle. A punched hole effect in the basemap. When a user hovers or clicks on the hole, a note about not all states report missinng persons data, and a comment about how missing data means they cannot be found, etc. (See schema and attached notes). Please project the United States using Albers Equal Area or Lambert Conformal if possible. Include Alaska and Hawaii if they have data. If they don’t, exclude both from the map. Thank you.

Happy Groundhog Day! (33/365)

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Happy Groundhog Day!

I’ve never been that into Punxsutawney Phil’s special day. I always doubt his wisdom. So I thought I would go to iNaturalist and download every sighting of a groundhog in Pennsylvania since January 1, 2021, so we can ask them what they think. The best part… the pop-ups have pictures. They really are cute rodents — even if they are crap at predicting weather patterns. 🙂

Map of all reported groundhog sightings in Pennsylvania since 2021.

View Map

Tools

Web Mapper GPT Prompt

Hi, I need to make one more map today. I’d like to make a map for Goundhog Day.

I have an iNaturalist dataset of ground hog observations in the US and Canada. Can you, using an Esri or other open topographic or natural landcover base map create a cute little map with every one of these sightings?

There are a lot, so I’m not sure if it’s best if this is loaded as a CSV or a geojson or what? If it’s not possible to load this data easily, perhaps I can create a similar map that is only the state of Pennsylvania (just 2800 or so sightings). I have a separate dataset for this if that is better.

The map should be funky, like the groundhog day event!

Please come up with three witty titles regarding how… if Puxatawny Phil its own shadow, well, we can always ask another one. Or Best of Seven…? etc. Something witty.

Please design the map to have similar fonts (feel free to use Google fonts) as the website here: https://www.groundhog.org/. Same color scheme too for accenting, etc. (It’s not exactly color blind friendly, so don’t use thse colors to differentiate values).

Finally, please create a little groundhog silhoutte icon, SVG for leaflet, or PNG for stacks, that is green or blue. A little drop shadow, very light, would help.

Thanks! If you use clustering, and I assume you will need to, please use a larger version of the silhouette as the cluster symbol.

Finally, don’t let the user zoom out to show more than 5 degrees in any direction past the the range of data. Also, in a hamburger menu, please add a year filter, with each year listed and an “All Years” reset button. Also add a sources button please. The sources Modal should begin closed no matter what and close when someone clicks outside of it.

Sources:
– Dataset: [iNaturalist](https://www.inaturalist.org). Ueda K (2026). iNaturalist Research-grade Observations. iNaturalist.org. DOI: 10.15468/ab3s5x)
– Map creation: Web Mapper GPT
– Attribution: {add all required and relevant stack attribution here}

Happy World Hijab Day! (32/365)

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Happy World Hijab Day!

Around the world there are meetings and get-togethers, as well as a free online conference for people to celebrate the hijab. You can learn more about the online celebration and local chapter meetings and support here: https://worldhijabday.com.

This map shows all the countries in the world that have World Hijab Day Ambassadors appointed. You can find and contact them on the official website. I thought the spatial distribution of official ambassadors would be interesting. I added information about each country’s predominant religion and type of government too, just to add some interesting contextual elements.

For those who celebrate, Happy World Hijab Day!

Map of World Hijab Day Ambassadors by countryView Map

Tools Used

  • Dataset Doctor GPT
  • Web Mapper GPT

Web Map GPT Prompt

I would like to make a map to celebrate international hijab day. I have a global dataset regarding Hijab Day. Can you please review it and come up with some ideas for a simple interactive map to celebrate this day?

Dataset Doctor GPT

I would like to create a dataset of all the countries in the world and emphasize which celebrate International Hijab Day on February 1st and which don’t. Fields included should be: – Country Name – Type of Government (from Wikipedia) – Hijab Day Celebrated: Yes | No | Not Sure – Majority Religion (basic categories Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Aetheist, etc.) – Hijab Required in Public: Yes | No – Rule: (only if yes, otherwise blank) brief 1-5 sentence description of who must wear hijab and penalty if you don’t Good sources you can find information about world hijab day from: – https://worldhijabday.com/ – https://wikipedia.org/ Please output your dataset as a geojson file or shapefile download. If possible include geometry information from Natural Earth Data at the 1:50 million scale (no lakes version of countries). Thank you!

Happy Hot Chocolate Day! (31/365)

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Happy Hot Chocolate Day!

It’s been a chilly January in much of the United States. Pretty standard for Minnesota, where we often reach -30-degrees C in December, January, and even February, but still…

I was pumped to see this National Day on the calendar. It got me thinking… Is hot chocolate even a thing across the entire US?

Let’s find out…

Map showing likelihood of National Hot Chocolate Day being celebrated in the US by state.View Map

Tools Used

  • Dataset Doctor GPT
  • Web Mapper GPT

Dataset Doctor GPT Prompt Used

Can you create a spatial dataset of the average daily temperature by US county OR, if not county data is not available, by US state on January 31 or, if that date is too specific, in January broadly.(Whatever averages you find, e.g., past 10 years, past 20 years, past 50 years, etc., whatever is easiest to fetch is fine and it doesn’t have to be current… any dataset within the past 20 years containing this info is fine. I’m going to use this information to create a silly map about how likely National Hot Chocolate Day is to be celebrated across the US on January 31. Fields needed in dataset (if county data isn’t possible to collect, skip county-based fields listed below, no worries): – County Name – State Name – County Avg Temperature – State Avg Temperature – State FIPS – County FIPS – Data source: Name I would love this in exported as a shapefile or geojson format with geometry from Natural Earth Data if possible. Otherwise, a CSV file with the data is fine as well. I can join it to a spatial dataset later. Thank you!

Web Mapper GPT Prompt Used

Hi. I would like to create a friendly, atmospheric, and chocolately looking map of the United States in an Albers equal area projection (for the contiguous US, I don’t care what Alaska and Hawaii projections are used, but those two states should be insets) of hot chocolate consumption. I have a GeoJSON dataset of all the states with geometries, and their average January temperatures. Please create a five-class breakdown on the temperature field, and use a brown color value to display, in choroplethic fashion, which states are most likely to celebrate National Hot Chocolate Day on January 31 based on average temperature. Have a small legend that labels each classification. The legend title should be: “Likely to celebrate?” Category titles from highest temperature average to lowest temperature average: – Not at all – Could be persuaded – Why not? – You betcha! – Two or three cups minimum!!! When a user clicks on a state, show the state name and the average temperature value for that state in Fahrenheit. Aesthetically, the map should have chocolately brown themes, and the oceans should have some graphic design marshmallow like icons looking like they are floating (e.g., partially submerged). Put about 5-8 of them in the Pacific Ocean, 4-7 in the Atlantic, and about three in the Gulf of Mexico. They don’t resize or change. The entire US should appear in the window. There should be no “below the fold” everything should fit in the window. The title of the map (upper-left) should be across the top and read: Happy Hot Chocolate Day, 2025! Subtitle: Which states are likely to celebrate based on average January temperatures? Upper-right: hamburger menu. when opened: Sources: NOAA, Dataset Doctor, Web Mapper GPT, and any other attribution that may be required from the software stack used. Clicking anywhere outside of this window automatically closes it. Important: make sure this window/modal/panel is closed when the map opens. Thanks! On mobile devices, ask the user to tilt the phone to landscape before viewing the map. Then, when tilted, ensure the map fills the window above the fold (and also without the title interfering with interacting with the map. Thanks! Use Google Fonts to create a warm, inviting, hot chocolately over the top camp fire vibe. 🙂

Happy Martyr’s Day! (30/365)

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Happy Martyr’s Day! It’s a national day in India celebrating Mahatma Gandhi.

To honor his legacy, I created a map of his historic march with information along the way at each stop. Again, doing one of these a day in my spare time doesn’t leave much time for innovation or design, but I can imagine coming back to this and adding non-proprietary imagery and details along the way.

Also, this is my first ever map in Hindi. There is a button in the upper right. You can switch between English and Hindi there. I cannot vouch for the Hindi translations, but I assure you, they are better and more accurate than what I would have been able to do before prompt cartography. I hope they serve this great human being justice.

Map production time constraints and language barriers aside, Gandhi inspires me (particularly in today’s geopolitical climate here in Minnesota).

I am proud to give Martyr’s Day a map of its own in our #365DaysOfMaps challenge.

Map of Gandhi's march.

View Map.

Tools

Prompt Used in Web Mapper GPT

I would like to make a map of Ghandi’s travels for India’s National Martyr Day. I have a CSV dataset (attached). Please keep this map pinned to India and Bangladesh area — i.e., cannot pan out of these bounds or zoom out past South Asia. Please use a topographic base map and if possible use a mask that that has India’s flag colors lightly embued in it to give it an India vibe. The mask must be below the mapped data, but abover the base map. Please use point symbols that are in India’s Orange color (on the nation’s flag, with India’s Green slight drop shadows. When a user clicks on a point, a pop-up info window should appear showing all th English information such in the following visual hierarchy order: – Stop Name (Place Name) and Province – Description – Context (when available) – Date (near top but subdued) – Sources (as a bulleted list) Please use an aesthetic and palette that ties to India’s national colors. Keep is subdued. The title should be Display Text in the format of 1950s Newspaper Headlines. Come up with three good titles dealing with Martyr Day and Ghandi. perhap something akin to “The Martyr’s March”. Pick your favorite and include it in the upper-left hovering over the map in large, print-map like style. No background box. (Make sure you use some effects to make it legible over the base map, e.g. drop shadow, etc.). Make the title stand out. In the upper-right, include a hamburger icon that when clicked shows a menu that includes a link to Sources. When that is clicked show a modal splash window with sources and attributions. It should close when someone clicks anywhere outside of it and it must not be open when the map opens. Also include a button that says “Hindi” in Hindi, please. When the user clicks this button, the map pop-ups and title and hamburger menu items all switch to Hindi. (There are Hindi fields in the dataset replicating English fields. Switch them in the popups, please.) The menu item the user clicked that said Hindi (in Hindi) now says English (in English). If the user clicks this, everything switches back to English, including the pop-up windows on the map.