Portrait of Hugo Brito

Hugo H. Brito

LEAD UX/UI ENGINEER · AI PRODUCT ENGINEER

I design and build digital products end-to-end — from user research and prototyping through production React, TypeScript, and design systems — with a focus on AI-native experiences for government and enterprise. 11+ years translating ambiguous problems into intuitive, production-ready software with minimal handoff.

11+years UX → code
<4 moconcept → MVP
70+component library
508WCAG 2.1 by design

selected work

Projects

A mix of shipped government platforms (sanitized) and live, demoable agentic AI products.

Gov · NDA Sanitized case study

Enterprise Developer Portal + In-App AI Chatbot

Architected and personally delivered 87% of a full-stack enterprise developer portal for a government client — concept to scoped MVP in under 4 months. Includes an in-app AI chatbot, a 70-component design system published to npm, and a drag-and-drop widget dashboard.

  • Role: AI Product Engineer
  • Clarity Innovations · 2026
Read Case Study
Live demo available

Agentic Service Desk

An AI-operated support desk that accepts requests in plain language, resolves them from an approved knowledge base, and routes to a human only when judgment is required. I own the product experience end-to-end — conversation design, escalation UX, and the front end — a working demonstration of agentic AI done responsibly.

  • Role: Product Design + Engineering
  • Independent product · ongoing
Request a demo
Live demo available

Agentic Onboarding Platform

Onboarding delivered as an outcome, not a checklist — AI agents guide each new arrival through accounts, forms, training, and access from first day to fully productive. Grew out of years of onboarding research in government environments; how it works under the hood stays behind the demo.

  • Role: Product Design + Engineering
  • Independent product · ongoing
Request a demo
Onboarding workflow graphic
Gov · NDA Sanitized case study

User Onboarding Optimization

Rebuilt a manual, 15-step government onboarding process into a role-based, automated workflow — reducing onboarding time from 2–3 weeks to ~2 days. This research is the direct ancestor of the Agentic Onboarding Platform above.

  • Role: Lead UX
  • Raft · 2022–2026
Read Case Study

writing

Research Notes

Essay · with data

Situational AI: Research the Need Before You Reach for the Model

Why most AI initiatives fail, when a better workflow or plain automation beats a model, and how customer-facing vs. operations-facing contexts change the answer — a practitioner's framework grounded in the published failure literature.

  • ~12 min read
  • August 2026
Read the Note

capabilities

What I Do

Full product lifecycle — research → design → production code → deployment. This site is itself a small demonstration: a token-based design system with an 8-pt spacing scale, elevation shadows, and a runtime theme switcher.

ai_product_engineering

Spec-driven AI-assisted development, AI coding agent guardrails & context design, LLM-powered in-app chat UX, rapid prototyping & proof-of-concepts.

front_end

React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, MUI v9, Redux Toolkit, Storybook, npm package publishing, performance optimization, design token systems.

ux_research_design

Figma, Adobe XD, Penpot, user interviews, usability testing, journey mapping, information architecture, design systems, WCAG 2.1 / Section 508.

backend_infra

Flask REST APIs, Microsoft Graph/MSAL OAuth2, GitLab CI/CD, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Istio, FluxCD GitOps, Azure.

methodologies

Design Thinking, Agile/Scrum, Lean UX, Human-Centered Design, Design Operations.

track record

Experience

JAN 2026 — PRESENT

AI Product Engineer · Clarity Innovations (Government AI Consulting)

Created a spec-driven AI-assisted development methodology (42 specs, 40,000+ lines) and delivered a full-stack enterprise developer portal — React 19, TypeScript, MUI, Flask — from concept to MVP in under 4 months, with an in-app AI chatbot and a Storybook-documented, npm-packaged design system adopted across teams.

2022 — 2026

Lead UX/UI Researcher & Designer · Raft

Embedded UX into Agile delivery across 8 cross-functional teams and 3 government organizations — reducing feature rework 20%, improving operational efficiency 30%, and launching a service desk ecosystem that cut issue resolution time 35%.

2015 — 2022

UX Researcher & Designer · The Photo Bus

End-to-end UX research and product design — personas, journey maps, A/B experiments — driving 25% engagement growth and 15% conversion/retention gains.

2001 — 2021

Signal Support Specialist · U.S. Marine Corps & Texas Army National Guard

Led technical teams configuring and troubleshooting secure communication networks. Twenty years of service — and the reason I understand government users from the inside.

credentials

Education & Certifications

🎓
B.F.A., Graphic DesignUniversity of Texas at El Paso
🏅
NN/g UX Master CertificationNielsen Norman Group
📜
UX Researcher & UX Designer CertificatesSouthern Methodist University
🖥️
Human-Computer Interaction CertificateSouthern Methodist University

contact

Let's Connect

Want to see the work I can't post publicly? Reach out — I'm glad to do a live walkthrough or demo of the agentic platforms.

hugobritohuereca@gmail.com View Résumé LinkedIn ↗