The Designathon was co-directed by experience architecture seniors Lisa Chai and Julius Patto. Chai and Patto are also co-presidents of MSU’s UX club.

The two were inspired by the lack of a "big design community" at MSU and wanted to create a space for designers in order to help it grow, Patto said. 

While MSU provides opportunities to attend hackathons and remote designathons, Chai said the focus was on providing something that was "live and engaging" for designers specifically. 

Patto described the experience architecture major as "small but mighty." However, the minimal exposure for the major is part of the reason as to why both Patto and Chai were committed to organizing the designathon.

"We are trying to create a hub that's known for design, that we have connections with other industries," Chai said. 

The Designathon consisted of numerous workshops and speakers hosted by both students and industry professionals, including Adobe, Meta, Apple and Ford. In between and during events, the rest of the STEM building was utilized by students working on design projects to be submitted for a 24-hour competition from 11 a.m. Saturday to 11 a.m. Sunday. 

The projects were created with five event tracks for student designers: accessibility and inclusive design, gamification and play, education and learning, sustainability and social design. 

Winners were announced during the closing ceremony Sunday afternoon with 17 submissions total. The judging committee consisted of student organizers, professors in the field as well as representatives from Ford and Rocket Mortgage. 

As a visiting student from the University of Detroit Mercy, architecture fourth-year Elana Span became aware of the MSU Designathon on Instagram. She sent it to a friend, who then signed up with Span.

Although she was excited, Span had expressed a little nervousness at it being a "computer-based" architecture event, even if they "had the same intentions with design," she said.

For her project, Span, along with her friend, planned on creating a community garden underneath the sustainability track.

"We have three main focuses: plant, grow and serve," Span said. "Serve, basically, (is) like you plant the seeds, they're gonna grow into food, and then the food serves the community. The community serves the ground again, by planting the seed, and then it grows, and then (it’s) like a circle."

Aditi Gonuguntala, an experience architecture fifth-year with a graphic design minor,  found out about the Designathon through a professor. Graphic design junior Da’Veeda Fitih-Turner discovered it through a social media page for the Experience Architecture club at MSU.

Gonuguntala became interested because "there’s never something on campus that’s design related," she said. "I felt like this was such a good opportunity."

Both said the atmosphere upon entering the building at 8 a.m. was very welcoming. While Gonuguntala enjoyed the workshops she’d attended early Saturday morning, including one on Figma, her favorite was the resume review session. Fitih-Turner agreed.

"It made me think about things that I honestly did not have on the top of my mind or made me realize that certain things about my stuff could change," Fitih-Turner said.

Fitih-Turner and Gonuguntala also entered the project competition together, following the sustainability track based on the United Nations' sustainability goals. Their project aims to address the issue of doctors "not always taking you seriously when you come (in) with certain issues," Fitih-Turner said.

The proposed idea would be composed of a wearable object and an app that could track a health concern of the wearer’s choice.

"The most important part is it's going to ask you all the questions that sometimes the doctors don't," Fitih-Turner explained. "We were all reflecting, and we all had moments where it was like, if a doctor had just asked a certain question, we would have gotten answers a lot quicker."

Two events were planned for 6 p.m. on Saturday, including the FlutterFlow workshop hosted by computer science junior Divya Sudha. Sudha is also the president of the Google Developer Groups (GDG) club on campus, one of the sponsors for the event.

The workshop highlighted the use of FlutterFlow, a widget-based platform that allows students to build websites and apps easily without the use of coding. 

When GDG members found out about Designathon, they reached out to the organizers to inquire about hosting a workshop.

"I think it's really important because students need opportunities and events like the Designathon and Spartahack, which is another coding hackathon, to really give MSU students a chance to build, to create and to solve real-world problems using design and technology," Sudha said. "I think it also gives them a chance to see their potential and learn about these amazing things, to network with people and feel that they belong in their major."

Span, Fitih-Turner and Gonuguntla all highlighted the ability to interact with other majors. 

At the Designathon’s close, Patto said it was more of a "quality-based event, rather than quantity."

The most satisfying moment for the co-director was listening to students praise the tools and tricks they learned at speaker events. 

"The whole point of us putting this together was just to give people that, to make them feel like they're learning something and gaining something new," he said. "These communities are being built slowly, and we will see as it continues yearly, if it will expand."

"I hope they all have an appreciation of design after these 24 hours," Chai said.