Portrait of Hugo Brito

Hugo H. Brito

LEAD UX/UI ENGINEER ยท AI PRODUCT ENGINEER

I design and build digital products end-to-end โ€” from user research and prototyping through production React, TypeScript, and design systems โ€” 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 โ†’ code
<4 moconcept โ†’ 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 ยท 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 โ€” 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 ยท 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 โ€” conversation design, escalation UX, and the front end โ€” a working demonstration of agentic AI done responsibly.

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

Agentic Onboarding Platform

Onboarding delivered as an outcome, not a checklist โ€” 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 ยท ongoing
Request a demo
Onboarding workflow graphic
Gov ยท NDA Sanitized case study

User Onboarding Optimization

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

  • Role: Lead UX
  • Raft ยท 2022โ€“2026
Read Case Study

writing

Research Notes

Essay ยท 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 โ€” 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 โ€” research โ†’ design โ†’ production code โ†’ 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 โ€” PRESENT

AI Product Engineer ยท 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 โ€” React 19, TypeScript, MUI, Flask โ€” 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 โ€” 2026

Lead UX/UI Researcher & Designer ยท Raft

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

2015 โ€” 2022

UX Researcher & Designer ยท The Photo Bus

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

2001 โ€” 2021

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

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

credentials

Education & Certifications

๐ŸŽ“
B.F.A., Graphic DesignUniversity of Texas at El Paso
๐Ÿ…
NN/g UX Master CertificationNielsen Norman Group
๐Ÿ“œ
UX Researcher & UX Designer CertificatesSouthern Methodist University
๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ
Human-Computer Interaction CertificateSouthern Methodist University

contact

Let's Connect

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

hugobritohuereca@gmail.com LinkedIn โ†—