Design as a partner to science: Sutnar Faculty helps develop smart info walls for physicists

Cooperation Students Science and research

How to make complex physics research accessible to the public? All you need is a cell phone. The Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art and the Faculty of Applied Sciences are preparing new large-format infographic walls that will also offer augmented reality.

Young designers and physicists from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen have joined forces to prepare an ambitious project. The Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art (FDA) and the Faculty of Applied Sciences (FAS) are developing large-format infographic walls. Using new technologies, they aim to translate highly complex physical research into a form that is understandable to a lay audience. In the coming months, these walls will serve as a kind of gateway through which colleagues, students, and visitors can enter not only the FAS Department of Physics, but also the issues explored by its researchers.

"The topics dealt with by the Department of Physics are not easily accessible to laypeople. That is why we have designed infographics that do not overwhelm with detail, but show individual thematic areas and how research is conducted," explained Tereza Kovářová, assistant at the Graphic Design and Digital Media Studio at FDA. The infographic walls present the full range of the department's activities. According to Kovářová, the aim is not simplification, but sensitive interpretation.

The wall design combines printed graphics with augmented reality. This allows additional digital content to be displayed using a cell phone, such as various 3D models, animations, or image material. "Sustainability is a major advantage. The printed wall remains the same, while the digital content can change and be updated over time. This means we don't have to intervene in the space again every few years," said Ditta Jiřičková, head of the Graphic Design and Digital Media studio.

The design selected for the infographic wall was created by students from the same studio – Adam Koranda, Adéla Štruncová, and Jan Poupa. The dominant visual concept works with a purple surface evoking a plasma discharge, drawing visitors into the world of physics. The students also designed the technological solution themselves. They wanted the display to work on all devices. "I consider this to be one of the greatest added values. The students worked not only with visuals, but also with technology and its limitations in real-world use. This is not a fictional semester assignment, but a project with a clear deadline, budget, and responsibility," added Jiřičková.

According to her, the project has a significant impact on teaching. FDA students meet experts from various fields of physics, marketing students from the Faculty of Economics, and learn to perceive design in a broader context. "It is extremely valuable for students to see how the university functions as a whole – that design is not an isolated field, but a tool that makes sense in the context of science, research, and communication," summarized Tereza Kovářová.

The collaboration with FAS follows on from a successful project from two years ago involving acoustic panels for laboratories focused on research into nanostructural thin films. These are workplaces where demanding and noisy technology is used on a daily basis, while also serving to present cutting-edge research to both expert and general audiences. "The acoustic panels were our first major joint experience. They proved to be excellent in terms of both aesthetics and acoustics," said Tereza Kovářová.

Like the acoustic panel project, the infographic walls are being created as part of the university's PRVA grant program. This internal UWB grant aims to connect research, teaching, and innovation across faculties. For the Sutnar Faculty, the projects implemented through this program are an example of how design can play a key role in interdisciplinary dialogue and how the faculty fulfills its third mission: to communicate, mediate, and cultivate public space and understanding of science.

More information about PRVA grants is available on the program website. Applications for the current PRVA 2026 program can be submitted until Friday, January 23, 2026, here.