What’s under babies’ bottom affects babies’ future

2023

According to the article "The Lifecycle of Plastics" by WWF Australia, a disposable baby diaper takes 500 years to completely decompose on Earth. When I first came across this new knowledge, I was both shocked by the duration of its decomposition and amused by the irony of it. Of course, one of the most important reasons people talk about supporting environmental conservation is to create a better living environment for future generations. Yet, surprisingly, the very things underneath a baby's bottom are harming our planet.

This project aims to convey the harm and current state of disposable diapers to the target audience of parents of newborns and those who will become parents, using data visualization.

Story-telling

The project collects three sets of data that correspond to the three parts of the storytelling process, gradually helping the audience understand the dangers of disposable diapers, their global usage, and the potential future.

Sketch

During the sketching phase, my exploration revolved around connecting baby-related items or babies themselves with environmental pollution, with the aim of eliciting empathy from the audience. Throughout this process, the biggest challenge I faced was determining what visual language would enable the audience to understand the theme of environmental pollution without triggering feelings of disgust or ambiguity towards the visual representation of pollution.

This was one of the abandoned approaches in the project. Through discussions with the mentor, we realized that this visual language could easily be misinterpreted and could lead the audience to contemplate themes such as child abuse.

Outcome

In the final chosen direction, I decided to avoid visual effects that could contribute to environmental pollution. Instead, I opted to use the structure of baby products to present the data. I attempted to design the poster to resemble an advertisement for baby products, aiming to attract the audience to further read and understand the content.