Bolsa Família Program App

Context

I led the complete redesign of the Bolsa Família program app, one of the main self-service channels between the Federal Government and over 14 million beneficiary families across the country. The app allows users to track benefit status, check payment calendars, trace their card, and perform actions such as blocking and unblocking it. Before the redesign, the app had accessibility issues, unclear navigation, and an interface misaligned with the institutional identity of the Ministry of Social Development.

During the same period, I also worked on the Open Finance project for Caixa Econômica Federal, addressing mandatory Central Bank requirements and ensuring regulatory compliance and financial system integration.

Across both projects, I worked strategically alongside product, design, and technology teams, collaborating with development and delivering detailed documentation that enabled technical execution.

Challenges

• Redesign the experience of a national-scale app serving users with widely varying levels of digital literacy
• Ensure compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA criteria across all screens and flows
• Align the interface with the Ministry's institutional identity and the program's updated guidelines
• Engage diverse stakeholders (government, development, accessibility teams) in a collaborative and transparent process
• Create and implement a reusable, scalable, and accessible design system adopted by the development team

Target Audience

• Brazilian citizens who are Bolsa Família beneficiaries, with diverse social and geographic profiles
• Government technical and content teams
• Accessibility and development teams
• Public managers responsible for the app's evolution

Methodologies and Processes

Discovery and immersion: critical analysis of the existing app, benchmarking public and private apps, and mapping technical and functional limitations.

User research: interviews, journey mapping, and group sessions with beneficiaries from diverse profiles, and CSD matrix to map certainties, assumptions, and doubts.

Stakeholder co-creation: sessions with PO, technical team, accessibility specialists, and Ministry representatives to validate product decisions.

Design system: creation and implementation of a visual system based on the Ministry's identity, with reusable components aligned with Material Design and accessibility best practices.

Prototyping: low and high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes in Figma, with navigable tests and user validations in Maze.

Service blueprint: mapping APIs and services involved to ensure a robust technical and functional experience.

Digital accessibility: project conducted following WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines, with validations alongside the specialized accessibility team at every stage.

Solutions

• Interface redesigned for maximum readability, simplicity, and navigation clarity
• Modular, scalable, and accessible institutional design system, implemented and adopted by the development team
• Components built on Material Design, mobile-optimized and accessibility-validated
• Detailed documentation delivered to the development team to enable technical execution
• Approval process with the Ministry structured around short and iterative delivery cycles

Product Frameworks

Discovery & Research: Double Diamond, Design Thinking, Jobs to be Done, CSD Matrix, Service Blueprint

Prioritization: MoSCoW, RICE, Backlog Refinement

Delivery: Scrum, Kanban, Definition of Done

Strategy & Metrics: OKRs, North Star Metric, KPI Dashboards

Accessibility: Inclusive Design, WCAG 2.1 AA

Stakeholders & Communication: Stakeholder Mapping, RACI Matrix

Technologies and Tools

• Figma for design system, prototypes, and documentation
• Maze for user testing
• Miro for CSD matrix, journeys, and blueprint
• Google Forms and qualitative interviews for research
• Accessibility validation tools (WCAG Guidelines)

Results

• App redesigned with a more intuitive, clear, and accessible experience for over 14 million beneficiaries
• WCAG 2.1 AA compliance ensured across all flows
• Greater citizen independence in tracking and understanding their benefits
• Design system implemented as the reference for the app's ongoing evolution
• Internal team more aligned and capable of sustaining future iterations