Charlene Chua, a data and graphics journalist at The Straits Times, talks about her team’s “Modern Dating” visual story and why dating can feel harder despite apps and technology. They discuss Singapore-specific pressures like the BTO housing scheme and family expectations, and how the team anonymous interviews, expert perspectives, and illustrations to humanize the data. Charlene shares how they storyboarded in Figma, evaluated different visual story structures (inverted pyramid, martini glass, diamond), and iterated on key design ideas like the HDB window metaphor, a starry-night palette, and a hopeful “soulmate” ending. She also highlights challenges of compressing a complex, human topic into a concise story under a tight three-to-four-week deadline.

https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/2026/04/modern-dating-singapore/index.html

00:00 - Why Love Feels Unlearned

00:23 - Meet Charlene And The Viz

01:14 - Dating Apps Spark The Idea

02:13 - Singapore Pressures BTO Family

03:29 - Survey Data And Human Stories

05:45 - App Archetypes And Communication

07:48 - Media Expectations And Reality

08:47 - Visual Metaphors And Storyboarding

10:06 - Story Structures For Visuals

12:55 - Pillars And Interactive Concepts

15:25 - From Inspirations To Final Build

17:15 - Colors Windows And Soulmates

20:10 - Biggest Challenges And Wrap Up

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ℹ️ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭?

Welcome to "Secrets of the Viz", where I dive deep into the amazing vizzes in #TableauPublic and other #DataVisualization tools. Have you ever wondered how these stunning visualizations come to life? I'll be peeling back the layers with the authors themselves as they share their inspirations, design processes and unique techniques. Join me as we explore, learn, and get inspired together.

Don't forget to subscribe, follow for more tips and check out the full playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVkjBKxQASMmwlAE89dt97IMSFqTpGldh

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

🤝 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞

▶ https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlenechuaxinzi/

▶ https://www.straitstimes.com/

#datavisualization #analytics #design #infographic #journalism #newspaper #digitalstories