I am a creative problem solver and visual communicator who is passionate about designing seamless digital experiences that anticipate user needs and strategically tell a story. I live for building and leading effective teams through trust, collaboration, innovation, and empathy.
![](https://luismerino.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/qtq80-ebnM5Q.jpeg)
Professional Experience
![](https://luismerino.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/dc-logo-150x150.png)
Director of Digital Experience
7/2021-now
Read Description
- Advanced UX maturity and culture (human-centered research, design, usability testing) across digital team and leveraged data, user feedback, testing, and results to improve digital experience for students, employees, and partners
- Established effective relationships and communication with cross-functional partners at all levels, through leading collaborative workshops and delivering impactful presentations, resulting in overarching solutions that aligned with organizational needs and goals
- Led cross-functional research and discovery collaboration for student resource directory (2022), which met goals of increasing traffic to resources by 26% and to admissions by 48%
- Developed college’s design system (2021), amplifying new brand and increasing team efficiency in wireframing and development while greatly reducing UI and accessibility issues
- Led, coached, and motivated a diverse team of 8 designer/developers responsible for visual UI design, information design and architecture, strategy, usability, UX, accessibility, and governance of content-rich, 5,500-page college website
![](https://luismerino.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/endomd-logo-150x150.png)
Design Strategist and Architect
3/2023-5/2023
EndoMD Initiative
Read Description
- Leveraged eight key research insights to build a strategy with five pillars that drove the strategy and foundation for diabetes education website aimed at rural North Texans.
- Applied strategy to rebuild the 63-page information architecture into a streamlined new structure based upon the five phases of the customer journey.
![](https://luismerino.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/dc-logo-150x150.png)
Asst. Director of Digital Experience
5/2018-6/2021
Read Description
- Managed the web team responsible for front-end development, accessibility, UX design, and analytics, while upholding a high level of customer service for internal stakeholders through various internal and external web projects
- Led and primarily contributed to the design, development, research, and collaboration for the new Dallas College Website (2020), improving: average homepage load time (4.3 to 3.0 seconds), click rate on home directly to apply (0.1% to 1.0%), and traffic on apply page (1.6% of all visits to 3.1%)
- Collaborated with cross-functional content, graphics, and IT teams on dozens of digital projects
![](https://luismerino.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/dc-logo-150x150.png)
Rich Media Developer/Producer
6/2015-5/2018
Dallas College (Dallas County Community College District)
Read Description
- Developed graphics, videos, and interfaces for websites, intranet, mobile app, and email as well as designing graphics, video, and other digital media for marketing the district
- Primary designer for the Unified Student Experience Project (2017), which met the business goal of establishing a cohesive digital experience between eight websites
![](https://luismerino.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/qtq80-SjbZxJ.jpeg)
Skills & Proficiencies
Power Skills
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Presentations and public speaking
- Visual storytelling
- Team leadership and management
- Design thinking
- Workshop facilitation
- Empathy and curiosity
- Project management
UX Design/Research
- Information architecture and information design
- Wireframing, prototyping
- Journey mapping
- User scenarios and flows
- Design systems
- UI design, visual design
- Competitive analysis
- Inclusive design
- Storyboarding
- Usability testing
Technology & Tools
- Figma
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- FigJam, Mural, Whimsical
- Front-end Coding: HTML, CSS, SCSS/Sass
- Digital accessibility (WCAG 2.2)
- Google Analytics 4
- Siteimprove
- Microsoft 365
![](https://luismerino.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/dch-banner.jpg)
Education
![](https://luismerino.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/unt-logo-150x150.png)
Master of Arts, Interaction Design (Candidate)
01/2023-Now
University of North Texas
![Utah Valley University logo](https://luismerino.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/uvu-logo-150x150.png)
Bachelor of Science, Digital Media
2007-2011
Utah Valley University