The digital revolution has brought about a disruptive change in how spatial data are collected, analyzed, and mapped. This has made workflows vastly more efficient, yet bottlenecks often persist in the research process. Collecting surveys on perceptions of space, place, and regions is one notable example. Responses are typically recorded on paper maps but have to be painstakingly digitized before conducting any analysis. We seek to close this technological gap through the creation of an R library called “mapsurvey”, which allows for immediate submission and aggregation of digital responses tied to spatial data. In this presentation, we describe how the software operates and share our experience of its development. We also discuss the results of several implementations, which include student perceptions of (a) the location of the “Midwest” of the United States and (b) residential desirability of various regions in Wisconsin. Beyond education, such a library has applicability in urban planning, disaster mitigation and response, outdoor recreation, and public health.
