She received a bachelor’s in architecture from Southeast University in China, a master’s of applied science and a doctorate in interactive arts and technology from Simon Fraser University in Canada. She seeks to understand design as a cognitive process and to use computers to complement the capabilities of designers in creative and flexible ways. Apart from researching the design process, she also worked as a practicing designer creating visual representations, such as interactive and dynamic websites, 3D renderings and animations, developing multimedia courses and learning about objects to foster design education, analyzing use cases to improve multimedia repository design, producing information visualization panels to support navigation and designing applications to support visual analysts. Her Ph.D. dissertation won the Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal in 2010.