In a statement shared with Bloomberg on Wednesday, Apple confirmed that its software design chief Alan Dye will be leaving. Apple said Dye will be succeeded by Stephen Lemay, who has been a software designer at the company since 1999.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Dye will lead a new creative studio within the company's AR/VR division Reality Labs.
On his blog Daring Fireball, longtime Apple commentator John Gruber has since reacted to the news with some scathing commentary about Dye.
Foremost, Gruber said Dye does not care about design.
"If you care about design, there's nowhere to go but down after leaving Apple," said Gruber, in a lengthy post citing conversations with Apple employees. "What people overlooked is the obvious: Alan Dye doesn't actually care about design."
Gruber said that everyone he spoke to inside and outside of Apple was "happy" — if not downright "giddy" — to learn that Lemay is replacing Dye.
"Lemay is well-liked personally and deeply respected talent-wise," he said.
"He has always set an extraordinarily high bar for excellence and embodies Apple's culture of collaboration and creativity," Apple CEO Tim Cook said of Lemay, in his statement to Bloomberg that confirmed Dye is leaving the company.
Dye was promoted to Vice President of Human Interface Design at Apple in 2015, at the same time as Jony Ive became Chief Design Officer at the company. Gruber said this was a "big mistake," as Dye had no background in user interface design.
Lemay, on the other hand, is described as being a "career" interface designer with a particular "attention to detail and craftsmanship."
The move from Dye to Lemay could be the best thing to happen to Apple's human interface design "in the entire stretch since Steve Jobs's passing and Scott Forstall's ouster," according to Gruber. At the very least, he expects the move to "stop the bleeding" at Apple, both in terms of quality of work and talent retention.
Dye is expected to begin his role at Meta at the end of December.
Gruber's full post on Daring Fireball: "Bad Dye Job"
Top Rated Comments
All I do know is that, under Dye, the user interface to Apple products has got worse and is more form over function. Looks nice, usability has become worse.