SINGAPORE – There is no lack of playgrounds in Singapore, with more than four in five households situated within 500m – or a five-minute walk – from one of them.
Yet an appreciation for their purpose, design and history had not occurred to Ms Sandy Ng, a digital graphics journalist for The Straits Times, until 2023 when she started taking her five-year-old niece to these play areas.
These playgrounds gave her the inspiration to pitch to her team an interactive story that bagged ST a silver in the infographics (regional/local) category and bronzes in the page design (regional/local) and page design (features/lifestyle) categories at the annual Best of News Design Creative Competition. The competition is organised by the US-based Society for News Design.
The digital project, called No Mere Child’s Play: How Singapore Builds Playground Culture, provides a comprehensive map of more than 1,000 playgrounds in the Republic.
“Most of the online maps we found had only around 200 playgrounds. But we found more than a thousand of these, and created a comprehensive map to help parents and caregivers find the nearest alternatives if the one closest to them is under maintenance,” said Ms Ng.
A team of 13 at ST used photos, videos, illustrations and animations to put the interactive story together.
The project showcases how slides, swings and see-saws transition from steel and timber structures in sandpits into the plastic structures on rubber flooring that people see today, due to safety considerations.
It was one of 32 submissions by ST that won silvers, bronzes and awards of excellence at the annual Best of News Design Creative Competition, in its 46th edition in 2025.
The competition, with its global panel of 46 visual journalists as judges, recognises excellence in visual storytelling, design and journalism.
Overall, ST walked away with 53 awards – three silvers, 17 bronzes and 17 awards of excellence for digital ST projects, and three bronzes and 13 awards of excellence for its print works – on April 22.
“The team put in a lot of love and effort into this project that’s rooted in our local culture. I’m so glad that it resonated in an international competition,” Ms Ng said.
Among the more than 200 publications globally that participated in the competition, ST came in fifth for the total number of awards won for digital projects, after The Washington Post, Reuters, The New York Times and the South China Morning Post.
ST editor Jaime Ho said: “These awards are among the most prestigious in our industry, and once more, we’ve been fortunate to be recognised by our peers for producing the most cutting-edge and creative journalism.
“It’s a challenge to better ourselves year after year, but we will aspire towards even more compelling journalism for everyone who comes to The Straits Times through all our platforms and products.”
Interactive: How the Johor-Singapore Causeway evolved over 100 yearsFrom pineapple to plastic: How playgrounds in Singapore have evolved
These are some of ST’s winning works:
Here’s how the Johor-Singapore Causeway evolved over 100 years
More than 300,000 people cross the Johor-Singapore Causeway daily, making it one of the busiest land border crossings in the world.
While it has been regarded as an “unspectacular sight” in recent years, it was celebrated as a “great engineering work” when it opened on June 28, 1924. Today, it remains a critical piece of infrastructure for Singapore, functioning not only as a vital link for goods and people, but also as a powerful symbol of the historical ties and enduring relationship between Singapore and Malaysia.
To commemorate the Causeway’s 100th anniversary on June 28, 2024, a team of 13 – comprising digital graphics designers, digital designers, digital graphics journalists, photojournalists, data visualisation developers and ST correspondents – explored its architectural evolution over a century, from a single motorway to six lanes and a railway track.
Published in June 2024, the combined use of 3D models, archival images and drone footage earned the project a silver in the page design (regional/local) category, and a bronze in the infographics (regional/local) category.
READ MORE HERE
Drowning in plastic: The oceans’ growing constellations of trash
Published in November 2024, this visual story explores how people’s everyday actions, such as buying and washing fast-fashion items, have resulted in the presence of an estimated 170 trillion microplastic particles in the oceans, and more in the air and soil, globally.
These plastics make their way into the digestive tracts of marine species, giving rise to a whole gamut of environmental and ecological concerns.
Such toxic chemicals in the food chain eventually reach humans through seafood consumption.
Constructed by a team of 10 – a data graphics designer, three data visualisation developers, a digital graphics journalist, three digital graphics designers, a digital graphics consultants, and an editor – this work earned bronzes in the page design (environment and science) and infographics (environment and science) categories.
READ MORE HERE
How food diary videos on social media can impact your body image
Put together by a digital graphics designer, three digital graphics journalists, two data visualisation developers and an ST correspondent in December 2024, this story discusses the psychological impact of “What I eat in a day” TikTok videos on viewers.
The team conducted a frame-by-frame analysis of 113 such TikTok videos and identified various elements, including narrative structure, specific shots and audio, that could encourage social comparison and poor body image among young people.
The combined effort of 3D bubble charts, graphics, embedded videos and audio tracks gives readers a thorough, comprehensive and immersive analysis on how algorithms have disproportionately fed problematic content to users with eating disorders compared with to those without, signalling potential bias.
This story clinched the most awards of all submissions by ST, with bronzes in the page design (health), infographics (health) and infographics (social issues) categories, and awards of excellence in the illustration + use of multimedia (video design) and page design (social issues) categories.
READ MORE HERE
Drowning in plastic: The oceans’ growing constellations of trashHow food diary videos on social media can impact your body image
More winners:
Digital projects
- How accessible is Singapore? We travel with a wheelchair user to find out
Silver – Illustration + Use of Multimedia (Video Design)
Award of Excellence – Page Design (Social Issues) - Sounds of Singapore, rhythm of home
Bronze –Infographics (Features/Lifestyle)
Bronze – Illustration + Use of Multimedia (Audio Design)
Award of Excellence – Page Design (Features/Lifestyle) - Singapore Sign Language: The unique, visual language of deaf Singaporeans
Bronze – Page Design (Social Issues)
Bronze – Illustration + Use of Multimedia (Video Design) - Beautiful, versatile Kebaya: Uniting South-east Asia with fashion and heritage
Bronze –Page Design (Features/Arts)
Bronze – Infographics (Features/Arts) - Flight of the common rose: How are Singapore’s butterflies impacted by climate change?
Bronze – Infographics (Environment & Science)
Award of Excellence – Page Design (Environment & Science) - Max Maeder and the art of kitefoiling
Bronze – Infographics (Sports) - How Max Maeder won Olympic bronze for Singapore
Award of Excellence – Page Design (Sports)
Award of Excellence – Infographics (Sports) - Max Maeder’s ultimate guide to kitefoiling
Award of Excellence – Page Design (Sports) - Package of three interactive stories on kitefoiler Max Maeder’s Olympic quest
Award of Excellence – Special Coverage (Special topic: Olympics) - Singapore Airlines turbulence: What happened to SQ321?
Award of Excellence – Page Design (Breaking News) - Singapore is building its first “eco-smart” HDB town in Tengah. How is it different?
Award of Excellence – Infographics (Regional/Local) - Singapore’s conserved properties must stand the test of time. One townhouse in Neil Road aims to show the way for the future
Award of Excellence – Infographics (Regional/Local) - East-West Line MRT disruption: How a faulty train left a trail of destruction
Award of Excellence – Infographics (Breaking News) - Alyssa Karla Mungcal, Digital graphics designer
Bronze – Portfolios & World’s Best (Individual: Art Direction Portfolio) - Hannah Ong, Digital graphics journalist
Award of Excellence – Portfolios & World’s Best (Individual: Multiple Topics Portfolio) - The Straits Times (Digital)
Bronze – Portfolios & World’s Best (Staff: Multiple Topics Portfolio)
Award of Excellence – Portfolios & World’s Best (Staff: Infographics Portfolio)
Award of Excellence – Portfolios & World’s Best (Staff: Original Illustration Portfolio)
- From boy to champion
Bronze –Page Design (Sports)
Award of Excellence – Illustration + Use of Multimedia (Sports) - Hello Kitty turns 50
Bronze –Infographics (Features/Lifestyle) - Still lovin’ it
Bronze – Page Design (Features/Lifestyle) - Olympics: Eiffel Tower and series of six vintage Olympic posters
Award of Excellence –Illustration + Use of Multimedia (Multiple illustrations (single subject))
Award of Excellence – Special Coverage (Special topic: Olympics) - The nation’s workers: Past and present
Award of Excellence –Illustration + Use of Multimedia (Photo Story Design (single subject)) - Here be dragons
Award of Excellence – Illustration + Use of Multimedia (Photo Story Design (single subject)) - Blooming sea jellies
Award of Excellence – Illustration + Use of Multimedia (Photo Story Design (single subject)) - Red, white, oh so bright
Award of Excellence – Illustration + Use of Multimedia (Photo Story Design (single subject)) - How Singapore built a playground culture
Award of Excellence – Infographics (Regional / Local) - K-pop connections
Award of Excellence – Infographics (Features / Arts) - Heart of a lion
Award of Excellence – Infographics (Sports) - 24 Headlines of 2024
Award of Excellence –Page Design (International) - The Straits Times (Print)
Award of Excellence –Portfolios & World’s Best (Staff: Features / Magazine Portfolio)
Award of Excellence –Portfolios & World’s Best (Staff: Multiple Topics Portfolio)
2024 in visual stories and digital graphicsThe Straits Times snags 7 awards at annual digital media awards
JoinST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
Awards and prizesThe Straits TimesJournalism
