I was born and raised in the Austrian small town of Weiz. My parents both retired from teaching careers, and my brother Ernst is an architect in Austria. His nephew Kai is a happy preschooler.

In 1994 I received a Fulbright fellowship to pursue an M.S. degree at SDSU San Diego. After initial doctoral work in Austria I joined a Ph.D. program at Stanford University, conducting empirical HCI research on user interaction with emerging technologies, teaching interface design, and working on Stanford-industry collaborations.

After high school I moved to Vienna and received a B.A. and M.A. in Communication from the University of Vienna. I spent two years in Amsterdam conducting research on the social impacts of interactive technologies.

After a leave of absence I returned to Stanford in 2005, finished my dissertation work, and received my Ph.D. in June, 2006.

I am fundamentally a private, family-oriented person. I love to travel and have friends all over the world. I enjoy forward-thinking design, good usability, modernist architecture, electronic music, well-designed cars and consumer products, entrepreneurial thinking, quiet home life, and being a mother.

I dislike cultural imperialism and broken promises.