Tasha Luksa

Current

• Freelance Senior Interactive Consultant at Tasha Luksa Inc

Past

• Freelance Senior Interactive Consultant at RAPP
• Freelance Senior Interactive Consultant at BBDO
• Owner at Tasha Luksa INC

• Senior Interactive Consultant at Sarkissian Mason
• Consultant at Digitas
• Consultant at IP Pixel
• Contractor at Critical Mass
• Senior Interactive Consultant at Euro RSCG
• Senior Information Architect at The Royal Order of Experience Design
• Senior Content Strategist / Information Architect at Ogilvy One
• Senior Associate Information Architect, Creative Services at Sapient
• Information Architect at Tribal DDB
• Information Architect and User Experience Strategist at VSA PArtners
• User Experience Architect at Allstate/Tek Systems
• QA and Content Manager / Project Manager at Devlin eBusiness Architects
• Operations Coordinator at Go Travel Direct / Zoom Airlines
• Project Coordinator / Junior Internet Architect at Magma Communications

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14 more...

Education

• Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology
• Canadian Marketing Association
• Carleton University

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Recommended

35 people have recommended Tasha

Connections

416 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• My Website

Tasha Luksa’s Summary

* - Dynamic leader with proven quality assurance and project management experience including but not limited to: strategic planning, operational efficiency, supervision and training, product creation and management, quality assurance, design control and process improvements
* - Possess expertise in user needs analysis, usability testing, requirements gathering, user interface design and systems analysis; conducted over 300 usability tests
* - Strong writing background (journalism degree); Documentation skills and experience
* - Navigation and Information Architecture expertise; SEO specialist
* - Knowledgeable in current practice for design and coding of accessible web projects
* - Customer Service expert; strong communication and interpersonal skills
* - Ability to work independently or in a team environment; excellent problem-solving skills, detail-oriented, self-motivated, and dependable
* - Solid organizational and planning skills; track record of gaining greater efficiencies from existing resources
* - Superior project development and management skills; understanding of end-to-end project cycle; responsible for identifying the business needs of clients and stakeholders to help determine effective solutions
* - Analytical thinker that consistently resolves ongoing usability issues; often called upon to consult on problems that have eluded resolution by others
* - Creative and design management experience including: diagrams, specifications, flowcharts, wireframes and demos

Tasha Luksa’s Specialties:

Information Architecture / Interaction Design, Content Strategy / Copywriting, User Experience & Usability, Quality Assurance, Senior Interactive Strategy & Planning, E-marketing, Search Engine Optimization, General Business & Web Strategy

Tasha Luksa’s Experience

• Freelance Senior Interactive Consultant

  Tasha Luksa Inc

  (Internet industry)

  October 2009 — Present (2 months)

• Freelance Senior Interactive Consultant

  RAPP

  (Privately Held; $; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  September 2009 — October 2009 (2 months)

• Freelance Senior Interactive Consultant

  BBDO

  (Public Company; OMC; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  August 2009 — August 2009 (1 month)

• Owner

  Tasha Luksa INC

  (Internet industry)

  October 2008 — August 2009 (11 months)

• Senior Interactive Consultant

  Sarkissian Mason

  (Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  March 2009 — July 2009 (5 months)

  - Zappos Private Sale, 6PM.com, Zappos Couture, Pathways to Housing
  • Project Planning, Brand Strategy, Information Architecture & User Experience, Content Strategy

• Consultant

  Digitas

  (Public Company; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  November 2008 — December 2008 (2 months)

• Consultant

  IP Pixel

  (Marketing and Advertising industry)

  July 2008 — October 2008 (4 months)

• Contractor

  Critical Mass

  (Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  April 2008 — July 2008 (4 months)

• Senior Interactive Consultant

  Euro RSCG

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; HAVS; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  March 2008 — April 2008 (2 months)

• Senior Information Architect

  The Royal Order of Experience Design

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  July 2007 — February 2008 (8 months)

  - Concept generation and modeling
  - Site Structure definition, Process flow generation
  - Wireframe design, Solution prototyping
  - Identification of tools, templates, and techniques that evolve existing approaches
  - Client: Kohler (Idea Home Project)

• Senior Content Strategist / Information Architect

  Ogilvy One

  (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  June 2007 — July 2007 (2 months)

  - Project strategy, planning and scoping
  - Concept generation and modeling
  - Site Structure definition, Process flow generation
  - Wireframe design, Solution prototyping
  - Identification of tools, templates, and techniques that evolve existing approaches
  - Client: Allstate

• Senior Associate Information Architect, Creative Services

  Sapient

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  March 2007 — June 2007 (4 months)

• Information Architect

  Tribal DDB

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Internet industry)

  January 2006 — March 2007 (1 year 3 months)

  • Provide written and visual documentation to communicate functional and interface requirements for creative and technical teams - This includes persona-based scenarios, use cases, site maps, work flow diagrams, wire frames and behavioral specs
  • Help develop and specify success metrics to demonstrate site effectiveness
  • Build and foster relationships with the client, ensuring their understanding of the role of User Experience, as well as their own involvement in the development process
  • Identify opportunities to validate design work through user testing (including formal and informal usability testing, focus groups, online surveys, etc.)
  • Work closely with creative and technical teams to ensure understanding of interface and process flow issues
  • Work with project team throughout Development and Deployment stages to ensure quality assurance
  • Work with the Project Manager to ensure all deliverables and deadlines are met within budget
  • Client: Robert W. Baird

• Information Architect and User Experience Strategist

  VSA PArtners

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  September 2006 — November 2006 (3 months)

  • Develop a understanding of a clients business situation in the context of their industry, economic environment and competitive landscape
  • Organize content and functionality into a usable web experience that meets both the needs of the client and the end user
  • Support new business development by contributing web knowledge to client proposals
  • Analyze clients online and offline processes for possible optimization
  • Analyze user and stakeholder research
  • Conduct and analyze audits of competitive and existing sites
  • Assist in creative development of new sites; including concept, interface design and voice
  • Design user interactions and interface requirements
  • Innovate ways to document all of the above including site maps and screen schematics
  • Clients include IBM, First Data, Cook Medical, Catholic Healthcare West, General Electric

• User Experience Architect

  Allstate/Tek Systems

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Insurance industry)

  February 2006 — August 2006 (7 months)

  Working on Release 2.0 of Next Generation Claim System web application designed to improve the customer experience, increase efficiency and manage loss costs. Next Gen provides a claim model that uniquely integrates people, processes, information, and technology in a way that positively impacts customers, employees, agencies, and shareholders. Release 2.0 involves the deployment of Next Gen to auto and casualty disciplines and Centralized Services.
  
  - Participate in functional requirements sessions
  - Contribute functional requirements
  - Create initial user interface design solutions to facilitate requirements discussions
  - Produce initial UI mock-ups and iterations
  - Provide UI illustrations for inclusion in Component Description Documents
  - Review requirements documents
  - Conduct usability testing of UI mock-ups
  - Update User Interface Design Standards and Visual Design Guidelines to accommodate new functionality

• QA and Content Manager / Project Manager

  Devlin eBusiness Architects

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  June 2005 — February 2006 (9 months)

  - Create effective site structures
  - Assist in developing efficient and comprehensive project plans and procedures
  - Develop implementation specs for the team
  - Create demos and present to client as required
  - Acts as expert resource in accessibility and search engine optimization to the design and technical team
  - Plan and conduct usability testing and analysis when required
  - Conduct ongoing research in the field of accessibility, and present to the team when appropriate
  - Project Management/Relationship Building: provide ongoing dealer support and perform content management for the Toyota and Lexus Dealer Web Studio, and Lexus.ca
  - Write and execute test plans and test cases in highly structured and loosely structured development environments and perform all types of testing (functional, installation, acceptance, browser compatibility, usability, performance etc.)

• Operations Coordinator

  Go Travel Direct / Zoom Airlines

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Leisure, Travel & Tourism industry)

  February 2005 — May 2005 (4 months)

  - Operations Coordinator (Las Vegas/Orlando)
  - Contract procurement and relationship building for Las Vegas market
  - Product Management – Responsible for advertising and tracking Las Vegas sales, loading and creation of vacation packages and website content creation and management
  - Worked collaboratively with co-workers to identify usability issues within company website
  - Responsible for creating payment schedule and ensure all payments are completed in a timely fashion
  - Responsible for making bookings in an exterior booking system, tracking requests, confirming availability, special requests and deal with any resulting customer relation issues
  - Flexible with work hours; Worked a lot of overtime (salaried position)
  - At times responsible for delivery of flight manifest and catering orders to international airports
  - Consulted in regard to new functionality introduced to web site; responsible for usability analysis

• Project Coordinator / Junior Internet Architect

  Magma Communications

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

  February 2004 — December 2004 (11 months)

  - Conducted competitive analysis studies on new and existing web sites
  - Re-wrote company website to increase market performance (http://websites.magma.ca)
  - Developed marketing material promoting various usability services
  - Responsible for delivering usable web sites on time and within client budget
  - Project coordinator for www.gotraveldirect.com, www.flyzoom.com and www.cvtravel.net
  - Coordinated web development team in design of websites, databases, and e-commerce applications
  - Simultaneously managed usability studies on multiple web sites that catered to a variety of audiences
  - Worked closely with graphic designers, editors, and senior business analysts to develop process flow and maintain consistency in design, editorial, and brand
  - Receive business requirements from clients and translated these into new functionality for the web sites
  - Responsible for the creation of implementation specs for team and documentation

Tasha Luksa’s Education

• Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology

  E-Commerce Webmaster Certificate Program , 2004 — 2007

  - Designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary for seeking employment in the web-development area
  - This certificate provides its graduates with hands-on experience and a complete set of skills necessary to set up, maintain, troubleshoot, program, secure and monitor an E-commerce web server. From designing a database to setting up and securing a web server to troubleshooting TCP/IP services to developing a complete dynamic website, this certificate teaches the fundamental skills that every serious webmaster must know.
  - Completion of 20%: Developing Web Pages Using Multimedia, Fundamentals: HTML, Java Script, CGI, Intermediate Client Side JavaScript, and Internet Essentials

• Canadian Marketing Association

  E-marketing Certification (Honours) , Internet - Usability and E-marketing , 2005 — 2005

• Carleton University

  Journalism , Journalism, Mass Communications, History , 1999 — 2003

  - All course work completed; specialization in Online Publishing and Web site Development
  - Well-developed researching, writing, and editing skills (knowledge of professional techniques)
  - Ability to analyze and evaluate information from a variety of sources
  - Extensive knowledge of desktop publishing and web publishing
  - Experienced with editing and production of various hard news stories, press releases, reviews, feature articles, interviews, public service announcements
  - Producer of numerous television and radio news stories; also experienced with professional studio equipment
  - Experienced in the use of clear and functional language (CP Style)

Additional Information

Tasha Luksa’s Websites:

• My Website

Tasha Luksa’s Groups:

ummm

•    Toronto Digital Marketing Professionals

Tasha Luksa’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch