Sketch mapping provides an intuitive means for collecting respondents’ impressions about space and place alongside qualitative data collection approaches. However, the data collected are often challenging to work with, particularly with digitization and visualization. After reviewing these challenges, this article introduces a “semi-structured” approach to sketch map data collection, digitization, and analysis as well as an open source software package, “qualmap,” that implements tools for digitizing these data in the programming language R. This approach retains the cartographically accurate base maps used in other sketch map research. However, it superimposes an areal unit of the researchers’ choice to aid in digitization and analysis. This use of a standard areal unit opens up additional cartographic and analytic possibilities with sketch map data. After describing this approach and the accompanying software, this article illustrates its applicability with a sample project that analyzes perceptions of space collected from a convenience sample of college students. The resulting maps’ clustering identifies the presence of a “bubble” around their campus that captures much of the travel activity students engage in every week. These data are paired with crime data, which illustrates possible mixed methods extensions of this “semi-structured” approach to sketch mapping.

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