SINGAPORE - An interactive guide by The Straits Times giving readers an in-depth look into the anatomy of cancer has won best website infographic at the prestigious Editor & Publisher EPPY Awards.
This is the first time that ST has won at the global annual awards, which was launched in 1996 and honours the best media-affiliated websites across 30 categories.
The Anatomy of Cancer features three-dimensional (3D) human models that can be rotated. Users can click on different parts of the body to zoom in on information on the top 10 cancers affecting men and women in Singapore.
ST Digital's senior creative director Rodolfo Pazos, senior web developer Yime Benites and interactive graphics journalist Rebecca Pazos worked on the project, which was published on ST's website in January this year.
Said Mr Pazos: "This award is a great validation for our team. We are always trying to push boundaries in digital graphics and trying different ways to tell stories."
The team spent months working on the 3D models and developing them using WebGL (Web Graphics Library), a JavaScript application programming interface used for rendering interactive 3D graphics.
"We spent a lot of time working on making sure this worked just as well on a mobile phone as it does on a desktop," he added.
It shared the award - which looked at the best use of data and infographics on a website - with Boomtown, Flood Town, an infographic by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica that examines how climate change affects some cities in the United States.
Another ST infographic project on the US election was also among the finalists for this category. There were five other shortlisted entries, including works from the Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe.
Other winners at the awards include Bloomberg, which clinched the prize for best business/finance website, NBC News' Today Show for best mobile app and CNN for best enterprise/investigative video.
"Compelling content is all about taking information and presenting it in a creative way that connects with readers. This is what our ST digital team has been striving to do, and improving as we go along. So, this award is recognition of those efforts, especially since we pitted against some of the very best newsrooms in the world," said Mr Warren Fernandez, ST editor and editor-in-chief of the English/Malay/Tamil Media group.
Added ST digital editor Ong Hwee Hwee: "Digital graphics and data journalism are areas we want to grow and develop. We have worked on different projects, from interactive quizzes, games to our first virtual reality project on the impact on climate change. We see strong reader engagement for these projects, and this is definitely what we want to do more of."
Singapore Press Holdings, which publishes ST, had won at the awards in previous years.
Bilingual news and entertainment portal omy.sg won for best user experience in 2014, STProperty took home the best classified website accolade in 2013 and AsiaOne's Adventure Race 4 was recognised as the best online media advertising campaign in 2012.
