Nansen Sr. UI/UX Designer Luis Hernández Talks User Journeys, Minority Report, and Motorcycle Upgrades
Luis Hernández brings the same style of creative energy to his work as a Nansen UI/UX designer as he does to the hands-on upgrades he’s making to his car and motorcycle at home. Here, Luis explains how he got into back-end design and why e-commerce is headed down a very sci-fi path.
What's your career background? Where were you before Nansen?
I’ve been in the industry for over 10 years, with a lot of experience in the e-commerce space across different industries, from education to finance to manufacturing.
I started as a front-end web developer, doing HTML and CSS, working for a company that manages nonprofits. Then I slowly started progressing into more of a web designer, and doing graphic design. From there, my career started going more into user interface (UI) design and then more into user experience (UX) design.
What do you think is unique about Nansen's work?
I think the way that we approach things is unique. We're trying to help our clients optimize and really tailor their digital experiences for their customers, and we always get several ideas out and then iterate. We want to make sure that we deliver the best experience by coming up with a lot of different ideas and testing all of them.
What are some recent Nansen projects that you're particularly proud of?
The work that we did for Pacific Surfliner: we did a customer journey and basically mapped out every single aspect of what a user would go through, from purchasing their ticket online to traveling to the station and actually jumping on the train and arriving at their destination. And we tried to identify the key points on that journey and what the user might be feeling at certain times. And we put a lot of work and effort into that.
We're currently working on a different project with Kingpin Tattoo Supply, and I think that in the future we'll get a chance to do something similar with them. So that's the one that I'm most excited for going forward.
Nansen has a policy where employees can spend four hours a week working on a side project. Are there any of yours that you’d like to share?
I recently started riding a motorcycle and I got myself a GoPro and went on a little trip. So I used my side-project time to edit the videos that I took on that trip.
And in the past, I've done tutorials, trying to get myself familiar with different software like Figma. There's a lot of Figma stuff out there that I'd like to brush up on. I started doing a little bit of prototyping, learning how to do that. And then we actually used the prototyping tool in Figma to mock up a couple of projects for a client campaign.
Are you following any specific trends in digital technology or digital media at large?
One thing I’m following is personalization. I think it was in the movie Minority Report where people would walk down the hall at a mall and see ads that were personalized for them. So you would see an ad, then someone behind you would see a completely different ad. I feel like that's where we're headed in digital: companies building your profile, gathering your information and really tailoring specific products for you in the eCommerce space.
Outside of work, what do you like to do?
I like to use my hands, so I’m into painting, some crafts, or working on my motorcycle or my car. It’s definitely a creative outlet, somewhat related to my work: customizing my car or motorcycle is like either changing or upgrading something in those “platforms.”
