Inclusive mapping
Inclusive Mapping
The Engage Summit is the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s annual conference for higher education professionals working in public engagement. The 2026 summit brought together researchers, engagement practitioners, and university staff from across the UK for a one-day programme of plenaries, workshops, exhibition spaces, and informal encounter sessions. A Queen’s University Belfast team ran a creative evaluation station as part of the summit, using flag mapping to capture how participants experienced the physical conference space throughout the day.
Flag Mapping
A low-cost, real-time spatial evaluation activity that uses colour-coded flags on a printed floor plan to capture where participants felt included, energised, comfortable, or where something was missing, during a live event.
Phase 0: Logic Model and Topic Mapping
Identify the “Evaluation Gap” this method fills. It is best suited for contexts where you need location-specific feedback during a live event, not just general satisfaction scores after it ends, and where you want to give participants a way to flag problems and suggest solutions in real time, rather than relying on a post-event survey that most people never complete.
Primary Objective
To evaluate how well the physical design and programme structure of a conference or public event supports inclusion, accessibility, and meaningful participation, using a spatial, participatory tool that gathers data continuously across the day rather than at a single endpoint.
Key Stakeholders
Event organisers, venue managers, and accessibility leads who need specific, actionable spatial feedback; programme designers who want to understand which formats and spaces generated the most energy; and participants who are more likely to share honest feedback through a visual, physical tool than through a form.
Part 1: The DIY Step-by-Step Method
Get the Floor Plan and Make the Flags
Everything starts with a large-scale printed floor plan of your venue. Contact the venue in advance and request a floor plan, then print it as large as you can manage, A2 at minimum, or two A3 sheets taped together. The bigger the map, the more specific the feedback you will get. Build your flags the DIY way: post-it notes wrapped around coffee stirrers, with small balls of plasticine as a base to stand them up on the map.
The Details:
- Action: Source a floor plan of your venue from the building manager or venue coordinator. If none exists, draw a rough version yourself, marking rooms, corridors, toilets, catering areas, entrances, and any key spaces. Print it large enough that multiple people can gather around it comfortably.
- Tip: Label key areas on the map before the event so participants can orient themselves quickly. Include room names, zone labels (Arriving, Exhibition, Plenary, Workshops), and any features that matter to your evaluation questions, such as toilets, seating areas, or catering points.
- A printed floor plan, A2 or larger
- Green, yellow, pink, and orange post-it notes
- Wooden coffee stirrers or cocktail sticks as flagpoles
- Plasticine or blu-tack as flag bases (the plasticine also doubles as the “missing piece” sculpting material)
- Fine-liner pens for writing on flags
- A camera or phone for photographing the completed map
- A short printed colour key explaining what each flag means
Set Up the Colour Code
Four colours, four types of experience. Keep the colour key simple and visible. Print it large and place it next to the map so participants can refer to it without asking a facilitator. Each colour captures a different dimension of the event experience, and the combination of colour, written note, and location on the map is what produces your evaluation data.
Run it Live, Not as a Survey
This is not a post-event questionnaire. Set up the flag map as a drop-in station at a visible, accessible point in the venue, ideally somewhere participants pass through naturally during breaks or between sessions. People contribute throughout the day, whenever something prompts them, not just at the end when memory has already started to fade and goodwill is running out. A facilitator at the station makes a significant difference: a brief, friendly explanation is enough to draw people in.
The Details:
- Action: Position the map table near a high-traffic area, such as a refreshment point or main corridor. Have a facilitator present during peak times, particularly morning registration and lunch breaks. Keep the invitation light: “Just drop a flag wherever something happened for you today, and write a word or two about why.”
- Tip: Number each flag as it is placed (write the number on the flag and record it on a separate sheet alongside the flag’s written note and location). This gives you a rough sequence of the data, which can be useful when analysing how experience shifted across the day.
Photograph and Catalogue After the Event
Once the session ends, the map is your primary evidence. Photograph it from directly above to capture the full spatial picture, then photograph each cluster of flags close up. Record the flag text alongside its location, and note where clusters of the same colour appear. The visual density of the map at the end of the day is itself a piece of evidence: a photograph of a map covered in flags communicates range and energy in a way that a summary paragraph cannot.
The Details:
- Action: Photograph the full map from above, then each zone separately. Transcribe all flag notes into a spreadsheet or document alongside the location and colour. Group by location, then by colour, then look for patterns: where are the green clusters? Where do orange flags concentrate? Are any areas generating both green and orange flags simultaneously?
- Tip: The plasticine sculptures are particularly useful photographic evidence. A small lump of plasticine shaped like a bench or a ramp, placed in the exact spot where a participant felt something was missing, is far more communicative than a written comment alone. Photograph each sculpture with its flag note in frame.
Analyse by Location, Colour, and Pattern
Your analysis follows three passes through the data. First, analyse by location: which areas generated the most flags, and of which colours? Second, analyse by colour: which types of experience (inclusion, ease of movement, energy, gaps) were most commonly reported? Third, look for cross-cutting patterns: where the same space generates both green and orange flags, something is happening that works for some people and not others. That is always worth investigating.
The Details:
- Action: Write up your findings location by location, using the flag text as direct quotes where they are strong enough to stand alone. Group your recommendations by theme: what to maintain, what to improve, and what to rethink entirely.
- Tip: Keep the analysis spatial. Resist the urge to turn the findings into a generic satisfaction summary. The value of this method is that feedback is specific to place, which means your recommendations can be specific to place too. “The exhibition area needs better signage” is more useful than “wayfinding could be improved.”
Part 2: The Realist Pathway
Evidence Manifest
Documenting how the mechanism was verified through specific data collection at the Engage Summit 2024.
| Evidence Type | What it Proves | Data Source |
|---|---|---|
| Spatial Colour-Coded Flag Clusters on the Floor Plan |
That participants were able to locate and articulate their experience spatially, producing zone-specific feedback that is directly actionable by venue managers and event organisers. The density and distribution of flags across the map demonstrates both the range of experience and the specific hotspots that require attention. | The completed flag map from the Engage Summit 2024. Photographed from above at the end of the day, then by zone. The map showed the highest concentration of green flags around the reception and workshop areas, and the highest concentration of orange flags in the exhibition and poster zone. |
| Qualitative Flag Notes as Direct Participant Quotes |
That the method generates specific, usable language about participant experience, not vague impressions. Flag notes provided concrete, quotable evidence of what worked and what did not, grounded in real moments at real locations. | Flag notes transcribed from the summit map. Examples include notes identifying the reception team as warm and welcoming, comments on small group discussions feeling like a community of practice, and specific flags noting insufficient seating in the Ashtead workshop rooms and unclear wayfinding in the exhibition area. |
| Material Plasticine Sculptures Representing Missing Pieces |
That participants moved beyond passive critique to active problem-solving, modelling specific, spatial solutions and placing them where they felt the gap. This demonstrates a higher level of engagement with the evaluation process than a tick-box survey produces, and provides organisers with concrete, designed suggestions rather than general complaints. | Plasticine sculptures placed on the map during the summit, photographed alongside their accompanying flag notes. Examples included a bench modelled and placed outside the entrance (where no seating existed before the venue), and seating placed in the flagged workshop rooms to reflect the reported chair shortage. |
| Comparative Zone-by-Zone Findings Report |
That the spatial data from the flag map translates directly into structured, location-specific recommendations that event organisers can act on for future iterations of the same event or venue. | A brief findings report produced after the summit, organising feedback by venue zone (arrival, plenary, exhibition, workshops, facilities) and by flag colour. The report identified three clear recommendation categories: what to maintain, what to improve in information and wayfinding design, and what to reconsider in terms of seating and poster format guidance. |
The map is the report. Learn to use it that way.
The Overhead Shot
A single overhead photograph of the completed flag map at the end of the day is your most powerful reporting asset. It communicates volume, distribution, and emotional temperature at a glance. Stakeholders who will never read a written report will stop and look at a photograph of a table covered in coloured flags. Lead with it in any debrief or presentation.
The Location-Specific Quote
Generic feedback says “signage was unclear.” A flag note placed on the exhibition zone says “couldn’t tell which workshop was which from the app descriptions, space felt chaotic.” The second version is reportable, actionable, and credible. Use the location as the frame: instead of quoting what participants said, quote where they said it and let the map do the rest of the work.
The Plasticine as Proposal
When a participant sculpts a small bench and places it outside the entrance, they are not complaining about the absence of seating: they are proposing a solution with their hands. Photograph these sculptures with their flag notes in the same frame and present them in your report as design proposals, not just as complaints. It changes the tone of the findings and makes them easier for organisers to act on.
The “One-Sentence” Report
“Because we used flag mapping, participants at your event were able to tell us exactly where they felt included or left out, and to model the solutions they needed, in real time, with nothing more than a post-it note and a bit of plasticine.”