I’m a service designer, researcher and strategist.
I help organizations in healthcare, enterprise, finance and the public sector launch products and services customers and staff will use.
How I work
Researching with the people affected. I run interviews, shadowing, surveys, usability testing with the staff and customers, in English, Portuguese or Spanish. When the subject is sensitive, I use trauma-informed methods. Using storytelling and plain language, I tie findings to decisions so leaders can see where a change will break before it launches.
Deciding with the people who have to act. I bring the findings to everyone who has to carry out the change (e.g., leaders, frontline staff, IT and compliance) and facilitate working sessions where they agree on priorities and trade-offs.
Select case studies
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Giving taxpayers a free, easy tax filing option
IRS DIRECT FILE
Led a user research team around continuous testing, foundational research and research operations resulting in 96% positive reviews, 80+ NPS, and more than 1/3 reduction from the baseline in tax return rejections.
“Direct File is a glimpse of a world where government tech benefits millions of Americans.” - The Atlantic
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Envisioning a modernized health care system
INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
Qualitative research and service design to identify Health IT needs of the nation-wide health care system serving American Indian and Alaska Native communities. A Fast Company Innovation Awards finalist.
"The personas and blueprints created allow decision makers to create a sense of empathy and urgency for addressing challenges that are faced across the country" — Maia Laing, HHS
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Helping patients handle surprise medical bills
CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES
Here I conducted English and Spanish evaluative research, design, and prototyping with consumers to simplify content, information architecture, and forms for handling surprise medical bills with providers and insurance. I also workshopped an impact/effort/operations feature matrix framework to better shape the product roadmap.
Project highlights
AI-forward discovery process to inform an EHR rollout
Conducted interviews with clinical and administrative staff and developed an EHR rollout roadmap for a community healthcare system across 21 programs.
LAKERAVEN
Enterprise AI adoption prioritization supported by data
Quantitative research with Coforma’s creative team to unearth fears, needs, goals and use cases.
COFORMA
A faster and more accurate benefits application
In 2020, I led a team of service designers to inform strategy and prioritization for a U.S. federal agency’s benefits application process. Our recommendations helped reduce processing time by roughly 20%.
COFORMA
A new way to save money reached 35,000 Brazilian users
Conducted Portuguese/English research in Brazil and conceptual design to inform the services for a new Brazilian savings and investment bank.
GRÃO / METHOD
Who I worked with
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Bayer
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Johnson & Johnson
Merck
Pfizer
Planned Parenthood
Walgreens
Tuple Health
U.S. Health and Human Services
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Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Immigration Policy Tracking Project
Indian Health Service
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
National Science Foundation
New America
Planned Parenthood
Resilience Advocacy Project
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
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Citibank
Barclays
E*Trade
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
J.P. Morgan Chase
Morgan Stanley
Scottrade
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Astrocenter
Chobani
Infor
LogicMonitor
Madison Square Garden
McKinsey & Co.
Mercedes Benz
Nike
Travel Channel
Verizon
Walmart
Weather Channel
Talks and publications
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Telling Complex User Stories: IHS Health IT Case Study
How we designed service blueprints for the IHS to illustrate complex user stories.
by Sabrina Fonseca and Arden Klemmer
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Understanding the Catalysts for Citizenship Application
Barriers, opportunities around naturalization, based on research and testing with over 70 immigrants.
by Sabrina Fonseca and Lindsey Wagner
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Designing forms for gender diversity and inclusion
How do we ask people for their gender in a thoughtful and respectful way?
by Sabrina Fonseca
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Designing Products for Everyone
How to design products with various attitudes, abilities, and aptitudes in mind, from ideation to execution.
by Arden Klemmer and Sabrina Fonseca
Who I am
I'm Sabrina Fonseca, a Brazil-born, NYC-based service designer, researcher and strategist. I’m a generalist who has come from UX design into design research and strategy. I've spent 15+ years in healthcare, government, and financial services at agencies like Coforma, Method, R/GA, Sapient Razorfish, Isobar and others. I worked as a photographer before moving into design and research.