Demos

Anaïs Cart conceived the “Demos” project during her postgraduate studies in Digital Design. This citizen participation initiative combines a conversation-based card game with an app designed as an “idea library.” 

Using cards that combine social issues with related solutions, participants come up with ideas, which they write down in a notebook or share on the platform. These ideas can be expanded upon by citizens and then reviewed by local governments and organizations in the social and solidarity economy. 

Demos facilitates the expression and structuring of citizens’ ideas in a context of institutional mistrust and a sense of political powerlessness. It aims to recreate the conditions for a forward-looking collective dialogue.

In this project, design serves as a catalyst for engagement: it transforms a confrontational debate into a playful, creative, and collaborative experience. The game sparks discussion, while the app organizes ideas through a process informed by research, interviews, prototyping, and user testing.

It helps empower citizens and provides local communities and actors in the social and solidarity economy with proposals that have been thoroughly discussed. The Demos project can thus revitalize collaborative decision-making and foster the emergence of projects inspired by citizens’ ideas.