We present a new phenomenological mean field approach aiming at the calculation of properties of exotic nuclei. This approach combines the microscopic description of the spin-orbit properties in terms of particle densities, but also vector spin-orbit densities, inspired by results obtained within the Skyrme Hartree-Fock formalism, thus including the contribution of the tensor force. At the same time, the new approach preserves the simplicity of the phenomenological Woods-Saxon calculations and, more importantly, the robustness of the latter towards extrapolations in terms of increasing number of particles and/or isospin.