How can we, as political scientists, understand sociopolitical phenomena without considering their spatial dimensions? This paper answers this question by considering the role of visuality within political science research. In describing a new type of mapping—cognitive mapping—which directly brings in participants’ perspectives and viewpoints to map their spatial realities, the project posits the value of visualising space as an additional layer of political analysis, particularly as a means through which we are better able to realise the topics, occurrences, and people that we study. The paper demonstrates the value of visual methods by showing cognitive mapping in practice in Ukraine as a way to uncover citizens’ preferences and opinions around territory and geography. In doing so, the project reveals the value of visual methods, and especially participatory methods like cognitive mapping, as a way for the people living the sociopolitical phenomena under study to share their perspectives, opinions, and viewpoints. Whereas knowledge acquired through lived experience is often granted less legitimacy in the academy because of its close connection to and association with participants, their experiential knowledge can deepen our analyses, including at other spatial scales, and thus shed light on underexplored phenomena.