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Map Pin-Point & Profile Overview Guide
You've arrived on the map - What next? Discover the quick and simple ways that you can check out profiles and find the information you are looking for.
Please Note - Each of the Content sections are links you can click on to take you to that specific part.
For thousands of years, maps have been used to identify locations and assist with navigation. However, until now, there has never been a map of compassion & care for people and the planet.
Technology, such as Google Maps, makes it easy to find a restaurant, hotel, shopping centre, football ground or fast-food delivery – and every other aspect of modern consumerism. However, there is currently no such ease of access for those seeking support organisations, charities, community and environmental projects, life-style and well-being opportunities or a host of other resources and services.
The aim of aDoddle is to empower people to find the right choices & opportunities for them, at the right time, in the right location. It won’t matter if the person using it needs help, wants to help or is seeking to connect with others. It is not targeted at any one specific segment within our communities. It could be that someone has a relative struggling with mental health, has lost their job or is feeling isolated – aDoddle is for every person and every community.
aDoddle – The UK’s First Network of Connected Community Maps will:
Whether you are looking for help and support, opportunities to give back, or hoping to find places to connect with others, aDoddle Community Maps has an ever-growing network of amazing local charities, community groups and organisations across the UK.
Searching aDoddle is as easy or complex as you want it to be. You can literally start by adding in a postcode or location and click search. You can then view the results in map view – or list view.
The guide for searching is a long one – because the more you feel comfortable with searching, the more you may like to explore other features that are available to you – such as categories, filters, tags and keywords.
From the aDoddle homepage, there are multiple places where you can easily begin your search.
1 Clicking on the ‘Search’ tab in the horizontal bar will bring up a dropdown menu, see image below, allowing you to choose between:
1.1 Begin Your Search – Start searching the maps using any location or postcode and customise your search further by adding filters and categories
1.2 Area Community Maps – Look through our collection of over 100 Area Community Maps across all 12 regions of the UK
1.3 Recently Updated Projects – Scroll through the most recently updated projects on the map. Each time a project updates their profile, they will automatically be added to this list. All projects included in this list will have a ‘Green’ Traffic Light, showing that they are actively updating their profile on the map, and the information they provide should be up-to-date and accurate.
2 The search bar in the top right-hand corner of the screen, will allow you to instantly start searching for a location or postcode.
If you have selected ‘Begin Your Search’ from the dropdown menu, you will be taken to this page:
There are many customisation options for searching aDoddle. You can search using location, radius, filters, profile types, keywords, categories and tags. All are helpful, but it is important to be aware that they can also limit your search results, and you may miss out on finding amazing organisations that would still fit your criteria.
Below, we will walk you through how to use each of the search customisation options. However, the best way to use the options available, is to start with a broad search and then narrow your results down as needed.
1 Here is where you can enter your starting location. You can enter a location by name (e.g Exeter, Plymouth, London etc) or you can enter a location’s postcode (e.g EX1, PL2 etc). You can always edit this when on the map screen. A dropdown menu will appear. Select the location closest to your search. See below.
2 If you want to keep your search results within a certain radius, you can turn this option on by clicking the ‘toggle’. This will turn the toggle blue (showing you are using this option), and a dropdown menu will appear. See below.
2.1 If this toggle is blue, you are currently using a radius. If you do not wish to use this item after selecting it, click the toggle again and the dropdown menu will disappear, turning the toggle back to grey.
2.2 Click in this box to bring up the options
2.3 Here are the radius options for you to choose from. You can make the search location as small or as wide as you wish. You can also select ‘Nationwide’, which will bring up options across the whole of the UK.
3 Clicking this blue text ‘More Filters +‘ will bring up all other customisation options. We will walk you through these below.
4 If you are happy to search just by location and radius, you can click the ‘Search’ button to go straight to the maps.
5 If you are using the ‘More Filters +‘ option, use the scrollbar or arrows on your screen to scroll down through the list of other customisation options. See next section of Guide.
If you are choosing to customise your search further, and have clicked on ‘More Filters +‘, you will see that the plus ‘+‘ has turned to a minus ‘–‘ (see 1 and 2 above) and more options have now appeared on the page.
(You may have to scroll down on your browser to see the full list of options).
To close the list of extra customisation options, just click on ‘More Filters –‘ again.
3 Clicking on this ‘toggle’ will offer you the option to narrow down your search by profile types, these include: Charity, CIC (Community Interest Company) or CIO (Community Interest Organisation), Community Building, Community Group, Community Project, Event or NFP (Not for Profit). If you wish to search through all profile types, click the toggle so it turns blue.
4 Select all options you wish to search for by clicking in the box beside each profile type. A tick will appear.
The search results will only show the profiles where the organisation has chosen this specific profile type when setting up their profile. If you do not find what you are looking for, we recommend trying again by searching all profile types.
5 You can narrow down your search further by entering specific ‘keywords’ into this bar. You can add as many or as few keywords as you like. The more specific your keywords are, the more accurate your search results will be.
If you are not sure what type of organisation or service you are looking for, use multiple keywords to broaden your search results. For example, if you are looking for a place to volunteer, you could search for “volunteer” and “community group.”
5.1 Add your keyword/s into the search bar and press the ‘Enter’ key. This will help separate your keywords into specific searches. You will see you have done this correctly, when a blue box appears around each separate keyword. You can add a space between words, for example: ‘Food Aid’ and then press the ‘Enter’ key. This will group both words into an one keyword search option.
6 aDoddle offers the option for all profiles to add ‘Categories’ to their profile on the maps. They can select as many categories as they wish that are relevant to their organisation. However, the organisation will be asked to select one ‘main’ category, which will become their pinpoint on the map. Each category has its own pinpoint icon which represents that category, and makes it easy to see the type of profile behind each pinpoint without needing to click on each one to find out.
This option allows you to filter your search by category, whether that’s ‘Mental Health’ and ‘Crisis Support’ OR ‘Children & Youth’ and ‘Family’ – whatever support or opportunities you are looking for, there will be organisations on the map, across the UK, that fall into each of these categories.
Again, although filters are helpful, it is important to be aware that they can also limit your search results, and you may miss out on finding amazing organisations that would still fit your criteria.
Select as many or as few categories as you wish by clicking in the box to the side of each individual category. A tick appear in those you have selected. You can always come back to this option later, to change or further customise your search results.
If you have any feedback or suggestions about other categories that you feel are needed on the maps, please do get in touch at [email protected].
7 Another search option that you have available to you is ‘Tags’. Organisations are given the option when creating their profiles on the map, to add any facilities or accessibility options that they provide or are relevant to them.
These can include:
Our ‘Tags’ feature is relatively new, please be aware of this when using this option to search. There are many organisations on the map that created profiles before this feature was introduced, meaning they could offer a wider range of these facilities, but may not have yet updated their profile. If you have any questions at all about a specific organisation, event or location, we recommend that you contact the organisation directly to check.
We are always listening and welcome any feedback given, so please do get in touch at [email protected], if you have any suggestions about other ‘Tags’ that are needed on the maps.
8 Once you are done using the ‘More Filters +‘ option, click on ‘Search’ to start searching the maps.
After clicking on ‘Search’ you will be taken to the maps. The first screen you will see will show the location you entered into the Search bar. On the maps, you will see 4 different types of ‘circles’ or ‘pinpoints’.
The slightly bigger Purple circles with a number in the middle, show where a cluster of profiles sit in one area. Currently, you may be zoomed out too far to see them individually. Clicking on one of these circles will automatically zoom you into that area, and show you all profiles in that cluster.
The coloured pinpoints of each individual profile on the map make it ‘aDoddle’ to see when profile information was last updated, helping to give confidence in content accuracy.
Traffic Light System – Profile has been updated within:
Green = Last 6 months
Turquoise = Last 6-12 months
Blue = Over 12 months
From this screen, you can:
1 View or edit the Location of your search. This bar will show the current location you have searched for. To change this, simply type in another location or postcode, and select your new choice from the dropdown menu. This will update the map to your chosen location.
2 View or edit the Radius of your search location. You can change how wide you would like your search radius to be, by clicking in this box and choosing an option from the dropdown menu. This will update the map to suit your radius.
3 You can change how you view your search results, choosing between ‘Map View‘ (how you are currently searching for profiles) and ‘List View‘, which will show you all profiles within the location entered into a list. See below image.
3.1 Within List View, you are able to edit your search further, using all options available to you in Map View. However, you are presented with one new option here in List View, and that is ‘Order By‘.
Currently, we have kept this option as ‘Last Updated’ as standard, showing the most recently updated profiles within your search area at the top. Meaning the information on these profiles is more likely to be up-to-date and accurate.
It is important to note that, even if a profile has not been updated recently, this does not mean that the information provided is inaccurate. We always recommend checking if the organisation has added any links to social media, or contact details to their profile to find out more about them, and ensure that the organisation is still available to you.
3.2 Here is where you can choose to go back to Map View. The view you are currently on will show in blue.
3.3 Each of the profiles in List View will show their Traffic Light status like this. You can very easily see whether they are:
Green = Updated in the last 6 months, Turquoise = Updated in the last 6-12 months or Blue = Updated over 12 months ago.
3.4 Clicking on the blue text that reads ‘Find Out More‘, will open up the organisations full profile. Their full profile will be able to offer you more information about who they are, what they do, what services they provide, opening hours, location, contact details and more.
See section ‘A Profile on aDoddle.org Explained‘ in this Guide for a more detailed look into a full profile.
3.5 Here shows when a project was last updated, by month and year (e.g May 2023)
3.6 Click on the ‘Heart’ in the top right-hand corner of a profile to start creating a list or add the organisation to a list of your choosing, by selecting the list you want to add it to, and then click add. You will notice that once you have added the profile to a list, the heart in the top right-hand corner will change from Grey to Purple. To find out more about Lists & Favourites, please see our Lists & Favourites Guide:
Click Here to See The Lists Guide
Lists can be useful for:
Personal use:
Work use:
Community use:
Support / Sponsor use:
Back to Map View Options:
4 You can access all search customisation options from both the Map View and List View too. You can search using location, radius, filters, profile types, keywords, categories and tags. All are helpful, but again, it is important to be aware that they can also limit your search results, and you may miss out on finding amazing organisations that would still fit your criteria.
4.1 Clicking on the ‘More Filters’ button, will bring up this window to the side of your page. This window will show ALL options described to you in Section 4 of this guide.
For a more detailed walk through of filters, see section ‘Begin Your Search: More Filters‘
4.2 Click on this cross ‘X’ to close this window. If you have added any filter options, scroll to the bottom of this window and click ‘Update Filters’ – as shown below.
4.3 Use the scrollbar or arrows at the side of your screen to scroll through all filter options and find the ‘Update Filters’ button
4.4 Once done, click on the ‘Update Filters’ button to go back to the map, now with your customised search options added.
5 When viewing the map, you can use the + and – buttons in the top left corner to zoom in and zoom out of the map. The further you zoom in, the purple circles showing clusters of profiles will disappear and the pinpoints for all individual profiles will become visible, showing their traffic light colour.
6 You can navigate around the map by clicking down on your left mouse button*, and dragging the screen to where you’d like to go. You can go anywhere in the UK from your starting location. You will notice that if you move quite far away from your starting point, there may be no pinpoints on this new section of the map. See 6.1 below.
6.1 You can see here, that the map has been moved to a new location and currently, there are no pinpoints showing on the map.
6.2 To update the search results for this new location, simply click the ‘Update Results‘ button at the top of the map. This will update all results for the new location radius on your screen, and show all profiles in that area.
See image below of map after clicking ‘Update Results‘:
When searching the maps in Map View, all organisations will show as pinpoints on the map. You will see 4 different types of ‘circles’ or ‘pinpoints’.
The slightly bigger Purple circles with a number in the middle, show where a cluster of profiles sit in one area. Currently, you may be zoomed out too far to see them individually. Clicking on one of these circles will automatically zoom you into that area, and show you all profiles in that cluster.
The coloured pinpoints of each individual profile on the map, make it ‘aDoddle’ to see when profile information was last updated, helping to give confidence in content.
Traffic Light System – Profile has been updated within:
Green = Last 6 months
Turquoise = Last 6-12 months
Blue = Over 12 months
You will also see that the pinpoints on the map each have an ‘icon’. These show which Category the organisation falls under. When setting up a profile, the organisation may choose to add as many categories as they wish. However, the organisation will be asked to select one ‘main’ category which will become their pinpoint on the map.
Each category has its own pinpoint icon, which represents their organisations’ main category and makes it easy to see the type of profile behind each pinpoint, without needing to click on each one to find out.
Here are a selection of examples of pinpoint icons:
From left to right, these pinpoint icons represent the following categories (there are plenty more that an organisation can choose from and that you will see, when searching the maps):
After clicking on a coloured pinpoint, a box will appear, showing the organisation and some basic information. Each organisation has a full profile, which when viewing, looks like a ‘mini website’. However, to avoid ‘too many clicks’, the first thing you will see after selecting a pinpoint, is a preview of the organisation. This allows you to move between pinpoints and profiles on the map very easily, before deciding to look further into a specific organisation.
Above are some examples of how these boxes show.
1 Here, in blue, you will see the name of the organisation. If the organisation covers more than one area, you may see the organisations’ name, followed by the location of this particular profile.
2 This shows when a project was last updated, by month and year (e.g May 2023), coinciding with their Traffic Light colour.
3 The ‘Heart’ icon allows you to add a profile to a List. You will notice that once you have added the profile to a list, the heart will change from Grey to Purple.
To find out more about Lists & Favourites, please see our Lists & Favourites Guide:
Click Here to See The Lists Guide
4 Clicking on the blue information icon – ‘i’ – will bring up the information about aDoddle’s Unique Traffic Light System, and the same ‘Key’ you have seen in this guide.
5 Each of the profiles in List View will show their Traffic Light like this. You can very easily see whether they are:
Green = Updated in the last 6 months, Turquoise = Updated in the last 6-12 months or Blue = Updated over 12 months ago.
6 To view an organisations’ full profile, to find out more about who they are, what they do and how to contact them, click on the blue text or the arrow beside it.
See the next section of this guide for a detailed look into a full profile on aDoddle.
Each organisations’ profile is set up like a ‘mini-website’, allowing them to share their story, how they help, the help they need, the services they provide, how to get in contact and any other relevant information or media that they wish to share.
As you will see in this part of the guide, each organisation has the ability to add as much or as little information as they wish. As you search the map, you will see a wide variety of how these profiles are set up. Organisations have the choice of branding their profile however they like, using their own logos, branding colours, wording and images.
Here are just a handful of examples of some of the amazing organisations who have set up a profile on aDoddle.org. The screen you are seeing below is an example of the first thing you will see after clicking onto a profile’s pinpoint. Scrolling down on your screen when viewing a profile, will show more information and options. We will go into more detail further down in this section of the guide and walk you through what’s included in a profile on aDoddle.
Please note that each profile has been added by the organisation themselves and not by aDoddle – therefore every profile has a disclaimer on it reminding you of this:
1 You will see that we hide the aDoddle (or area map) banner when you are viewing a profile. The purpose of a profile is to highlight the amazing work each organisation carries out, focussing solely on the organisation; it’s not about us. Organisations are free to use this space as they would a website, regardless of whether they have the funds, time or team members to manage a website of their own.
2 Here is the name and tagline of the organisation, in white text, along with their registered charity number should they have one.
3 You can create and/or add an organisation to a list, by clicking on this heart.
For more information about Lists & Favourites, you can visit our Lists & Favourites Guide:
Click Here to See The Lists Guide
4 Each organisation has the option to upload a ‘Header’ image. This helps them to further brand their profile and can be used as a space to share images, media, quotes or more information about their organisation.
5 The organisations’ logo (or the image they have chosen as their logo) will show here on the white banner.
6 On the right hand side of the white banner, you will see some icons you may recognise. These icons show the categories the organisation falls under, chosen by them. They can choose as many or as few as they wish. Hovering your mouse over each of these icons will show you what they mean, e.g Mental Health, Disability Support, Crisis Support etc. The profiles’ ‘Traffic Light’ colour is shown next to the categories.
7 In the dark grey banner, are the different ‘tabs’ for you to look through. Each will have detailed and relevant information about the organisation. Our research has shown that the 5 Key Things people want to know about an organisation are:
You can move between each of the tabs on this dark grey banner, and each has a space for the organisation to add information about these 5 Key Things. The tabs take you to each of these sections of the profile:
8 Use the scrollbar or arrows at the side of your screen to scroll down the page, and see the rest of the profile.
9 In each of the tabs, any information the organisation has added will show here in the white box. The organisation can add as much or as little as they choose.
10 Under the text, in the ‘Overview’ tab, will be the information regarding their services, and whether or not they are:
11 You can quickly get in contact with an organisation by clicking on the Turquoise ‘Get in Touch’ button, here in the Overview tab. Alternatively, you can find all Contact information in the dropdown menu to the right. See 17
12 There are some options at the bottom of their profile to share the organisation further. These include: Share on Facebook, Share in a Tweet (Twitter), Print or Add to List.
13 You will see a small map on every profile, showing the location of their pinpoint. It is worth noting that some organisations choose not to share their exact location. This could be for many reasons: an organisation may not have an office or physical location as they are run from home or online based; an organisation could work in safeguarding and will not share their location publicly; to name a couple of examples. Please do always get in contact with an organisation directly if you are unsure and wish to find out more.
14 Just underneath the map, you will see some text. This text will tell you when the profile was last updated, giving you confidence in profile content accuracy.
15 This is a dropdown box. Clicking anywhere in the box will open it to show the information provided. This first one is ‘Address’. This will be the address provided by the organisation themselves, if they chose to add one.
16 This is a dropdown box. Clicking anywhere in the box will open it to show the information provided. Opening this box will allow you to see the ‘Opening Hours’ provided by the organisation. They can customise this however they need. If you are unsure on the information provided, please get in contact with the organisation directly.
17 This final dropdown box is all ‘Contact’ information for the organisation. Usually this box will already be ‘open’, showing their contact details, plus any links they have added. For the purpose of the above graphic, we have shown it closed, simply to fit everything into the image. See 17.1 below, to see how this box looks when open (how you should find it when visiting profiles), plus the range of options that are available.
11 & 17.1 Here is an example of the list of Contact options an organisation may choose to add. Some organisations will choose to add less, and some will choose to add much more. This particular profile has chosen to add quite a few, ranging from their website, their telephone numbers and their email address to their social media links, their YouTube page where they have content and also a link to their donation page – should anyone wish to donate.
At the bottom of this section, there will be another ‘Get in Touch’ button, allowing you to send a message to the organisation quickly using a simple online contact form. After clicking on the blue button, this is the contact form that will pop up. Fill out the information required and press the ‘Send Message’ button when you’re ready:
If you are looking to find out more about volunteering and have selected this option, you will see that another box has appeared. See image below:
This will allow you to easily offer your support to the organisation and customise how much time you are able to give. You can enter a number or use the arrows to move between amounts in the first box, then select either hours, minutes or days and whether that’s per month, per week or a one-off. Send the message when you are happy with the information entered.
Please Remember that each profile has been added by the organisation themselves and not by aDoddle – therefore every profile has a disclaimer on it reminding you of this:
Another way of searching for amazing organisations on aDoddle.org, is by viewing the most recently updated projects on the map. Each time a project updates their profile, they will automatically be added to this list. All projects included in this list, will have a ‘Green’ Traffic Light, showing that they are actively updating their profile on the map, and the information they provide should be up-to-date and accurate.
1 From the aDoddle homepage, click or hover your mouse over the ‘Search’ tab in the horizontal menu.
2 A purple dropdown menu will appear, showing you the options for searching the aDoddle website. These are ‘Begin Your Search’ , ‘Area Community Maps’ & ‘Recently Updated Projects’
2.1 Click on the 3rd one down, ‘Recently Updated Projects’
This will take you to a new page, showing in list-form, all of the most recently updated projects on the map.
3 Here you can see individual projects that have updated recently, meaning their Traffic Light is Green for another 6 months. Each project is in a purple box, and shows the very basic information about the organisation. See 3.1 below for more details.
4 Use the scrollbar or arrows on the side of your browser to scroll through the full list.
3.1 At the top of each project in this list, there is an icon. These icons show which Category the organisation falls under. When setting up a profile, the organisation may choose to add as many categories as they wish. However, the organisation will be asked to select one ‘main’ category, which will become their pinpoint on the map. This main category shows here.
This organisations category is ‘Support for Charities’. You will see the category also shows just above the organisations’ name.
3.2 This larger text is the organisation or project name.
3.3 Under the name, you can see just how recently the profile was updated. If a project is shown on this list, it will usually be because they have updated in the last few days. The list constantly refreshes every time a project updates their profile, meaning you will always have confidence that these projects are active. The information on the profile should be up-to-date and their Traffic Light is Green.
3.4 Clicking the blue ‘View Project’ button, will take you to the organisations’ full profile, where you can find all information, services, location, contact details (and more!) that the organisation has chosen to share. See 3.4.1 below for an example of this organisations’ full profile.
If you’d like to read a more detailed walk-through of full profiles on aDoddle, see ‘A Profile on aDoddle.org Explained’ section of this guide.
You can also search through aDoddle’s Area-Based Community Maps. These maps cover the 12 regions of the UK and are an ever-growing resource. aDoddle’s maps allow anyone, in any community, to have the ability to find available support, opportunities to volunteer and places to connect with others within their own community, at the same time as being able to see what is happening in other parts of the country where friends or relatives live.
1 From the aDoddle homepage, click or hover your mouse over the ‘Search’ tab in the horizontal menu.
2 A purple dropdown menu will appear, showing you the options for searching the aDoddle website. These are ‘Begin Your Search’ , ‘Area Community Maps’ & ‘Recently Updated Projects’
2.1 Click on the 2nd one down – ‘Area Community Maps’
This will take you to a new page, showing in list-form, all twelve regions of the UK.
3 Here is the next page you will see. There is some text about aDoddle’s Connected Community Maps at the top of the page and below are the options for the 12 regions of the UK, along with a photo of the area within these, are multiple community maps for each region.
4 Use the scrollbar or arrows on the side of your browser to scroll through the full list. See the graphic below for the full list of regions.
Clicking within each of these 12 boxes will take you to that Area-Based Community Maps page. For the purpose of this guide, we will look at the South West Community Maps.
Area-Based Community Maps – Options Explained
1 This is the page for South West’s Community Maps. Here, in big white text you can see which region you are in, along with some information on the purpose of the maps.
2 This blue button that reads: ‘See the community maps’ will automatically scroll down to the bottom of the page for you, and bring you to the individual area maps within the region you are searching.
Alternatively, you can scroll down the page manually using the scrollbar or arrows, see 4
3 You can click on each of these circles. These read: Find, Give, Connect, Collaborate, Support. Clicking on any of these will take you to a page with more information on these 5 purposes of the maps. See 3.1 below.
4 Use the scrollbar or arrows on the side of your browser to scroll through the full list of Connected Community Maps in this region.
3.1 This is the page you will be taken to after clicking on any of the 5 circles on the regional community maps page. You can read through the information for each: Find, Give, Connect, Collaborate and Support.
5 After scrolling down on the page, you will see the list of all connected area-based maps for that particular region.
6 In this text, you can see the number of connected area-based maps aDoddle has for this region, for example, in the South West there are 27 maps so far. These numbers are always growing, and if you haven’t been able to find a map for your particular area, please do get in touch using the contact form on the aDoddle website OR email: [email protected].
However, don’t forget, even if there isn’t a specific map created yet in the ‘Area-based Maps’ section, you can simply search for your area using the ‘Begin Your Search’ option on the website and once you are viewing the maps, you can click and drag the map around to explore the whole of the UK.
7 All area-based maps for this region are shown in list-view here. Click within the boxes to be taken to the map. See 7.1 below to see an example of an area-based map.
8 Use the scrollbar or arrows on the side of your browser to scroll through the full list of Connected Community Maps in this region.
7.1 After clicking on a box for an individual area-based map, you will be taken to the map’s page. You will see in the top left corner which map you are viewing.
7.2 Here you can also see which map you are viewing here, in the text that reads: “Welcome to the … Community Map”
7.3 Any sponsors or partners for the individual area-based community map can be seen here, along with information about any sponsorship opportunities available for this area. Click on the blue ‘Become a sponsor today’ text if you are interested in finding out more.
7.4 Use the scrollbar or arrows at the side of your browser to view the map.
Here is what you will see after scrolling down to the map. See the next section of this guide – ‘Searching an Area-Based Community Map’ for a more detailed walkthrough of your options.
7.4 If you scroll further down, you can read more information about aDoddle, the maps ‘unique traffic light system’ and find an option to add your charity or community organisation to the map.
7.5 This is what you will see after scrolling down further.
7.6 Here is the ‘key’ for the coloured pin-points, of each individual profile on the map, making it ‘aDoddle’ to see when profile information was last updated, helping to give confidence in content accuracy:
Traffic Light System – Profile has been updated within:
Green = Last 6 months
Turquoise = Last 6-12 months
Blue = Over 12 months
7.7 Clicking on this button will take you to the ‘Add Your Project’ screen, where you can create a free profile for your charity, event or community organisation.
1 Searching for amazing organisations within a connected area-based map is as easy as using the ‘Begin Your Search’ option from the aDoddle homepage. On the maps, you will see 4 different types of ‘circles’ or ‘pinpoints’.
The slightly bigger Purple circles, with a number in the middle, show where a cluster of profiles sit in one area. Currently, you may be zoomed out too far to see them individually. Clicking on one of these circles, will automatically zoom you into that area, and show you all individual profiles in that cluster.
The coloured pinpoints of each individual profile on the map, makes it ‘aDoddle’ to see when profile information was last updated, helping to give confidence in content accuracy –
Traffic Light System – Profile has been updated within:
Green = Last 6 months
Turquoise = Last 6-12 months
Blue = Over 12 months
2 When viewing the map, you can use the + and – buttons in the top left corner to zoom in and zoom out of the map. The further you zoom in, the purple circles showing clusters of profiles will disappear and the pinpoints for all individual profiles will become visible, showing their traffic light colour.
You can navigate around the map by clicking on your left mouse button*, and dragging the screen to where you’d like to go. You can go anywhere in the UK from your starting location. You will notice that if you move quite far away from your starting point, there may be no pinpoints on this new section of the map – this doesn’t mean there are no new projects to see! See 3 below.
3 To update the search results at any point (if you have zoomed in or out, or explored further than your starting point), simply click the ‘Update Results‘ button at the top of the map. This will update all results for the new location radius on your screen, and show all profiles in that area.
4 Clicking on the ‘Filters’ button, will bring up a window to the side of the map.
See 4.1 below to see an example of this. This will bring up other search customisation options. We will walk you through these below.
4.1 Here is the window that will appear after clicking on the ‘Filters’ button. Whilst filters are helpful, it is important to be aware that they can also limit your search results, and you may miss out on finding amazing organisations that would still fit your criteria.
4.2 You can narrow down your search further by entering specific ‘keywords’ into this bar. You can add as many or as few keywords as you like. The more specific your keywords are, the more accurate your search results will be.
If you are not sure what type of organisation or service you are looking for, use multiple keywords to broaden your search results. For example, if you are looking for a place to volunteer, you could search for “volunteer” and “community group.”
Add your keyword/s into the search bar and press the ‘Enter’ key. This will help separate your keywords into specific searches. You will see you have done this correctly, when a blue box appears around each separate keyword. You can add a space between words, for example: ‘Food Aid’ and then press the ‘Enter’ key. This will group both words into a one keyword search option.
Sorry this may sound confusing, however have a go and see. If you can think of a simpler way for us to describe this then please do let us know 🙂
See 4.2.1 below for an example.
4.3 Use the scrollbar at the side of the window to see more Filter options.
4.4 This option allows you to filter your search by category, whether that’s ‘Mental Health’ and ‘Crisis Support’ OR ‘Children & Youth’ and ‘Family’ – whatever support or opportunities you are looking for, there will be organisations on the map across the UK, that fall into each of these categories.
Select as many or as few categories as you wish by clicking in the box to the side of each individual category, you will see a tick will appear in those you have selected. You can always come back to this option later to change or further customise your search results.
If you have any feedback or suggestions about other categories that you feel are needed on the maps, please do get in touch at [email protected].
4.5 Once you are done adding Filters, click on the blue ‘Update Filters’ button. You will be taken back to the map and can start looking through your search results in that area.
You've arrived on the map - What next? Discover the quick and simple ways that you can check out profiles and find the information you are looking for.
Last Updated: 6th December 2023
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