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Apple UI Design Chief Alan Dye Leaving for Meta
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I anticipate the next iteration will be called Solid Glass and will be the Snow leopard of UI refinements 
Truly I was confused by the liquid glass, because I remember a very clear vision path statement from Ive were the idea was eventually, or the ideal was, that the iPhone itself would be like a piece of glass in your hand (removing it's form but not it's function, blending it in with the world around you, VisionOS is more like simulating that design exrpession virtually before it is materially possible.
Liquid glass is the total inverse of this vision, and actually a mockery.
Doing a quick search on this topic I found this image which actually visualises my point, here is a iPhone that is glass like and almost removes itself placing the expected UI in prominence, and that's it - ultimately liquid glass is the cart before the horse.
Truly I was confused by the liquid glass, because I remember a very clear vision path statement from Ive were the idea was eventually, or the ideal was, that the iPhone itself would be like a piece of glass in your hand (removing it's form but not it's function, blending it in with the world around you, VisionOS is more like simulating that design exrpession virtually before it is materially possible.
Liquid glass is the total inverse of this vision, and actually a mockery.
Doing a quick search on this topic I found this image which actually visualises my point, here is a iPhone that is glass like and almost removes itself placing the expected UI in prominence, and that's it - ultimately liquid glass is the cart before the horse.
Please, everyone.
None of us know who has done exactly what and why whatever is happening at Apple's design studio. This could be good, bad or quite insignificant.
None of us know who has done exactly what and why whatever is happening at Apple's design studio. This could be good, bad or quite insignificant.
Best news I've heard all month!
Now can we rollback Liquid Glass and the awful UI design choices in iOS 26, and Tahoe?
Now can we rollback Liquid Glass and the awful UI design choices in iOS 26, and Tahoe?
The guy who has been there for 25 yrs, his time has come to shine. Office politics doesn’t always hear the voices from those below due to egos. Though every company has its particular culture some traditions span the industry unfortunately.
How many people would seriously consider buying a Facebook phone?
At some point, Tim is going to have to stop staring at his balance sheet and realize it’s just himself and the groundskeeper.
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If he was the one behind Liquid Glass, then good riddance.
And truly . . . do we really know if these people actually exist(ed)?
I've never met Tim in-person (or even seen an Alan mug, for that matter), but how are to really know these days?!?
"So if you were a product person, you couldn’t change the course of that company very much. So who influences the success at PepsiCo? The sales and marketing people. Therefore they were the ones that got promoted, and they were the ones that ran the company. Well, for PepsiCo that might have been okay, but it turns out the same thing can happen at technology companies that get monopolies. Like IBM and Xerox. If you were a product person at IBM or Xerox so you make a better copier or better computer so what? When you have a monopoly marketshare, the company’s not any more successful. So the people who make the company more successful are the sales and marketing people, and they end up running the companies. And the product people get run out of the decision making forums. The companies forget what it means to make great products. The product sensibility and product genius that brought them to this monopolistic position gets rotted out by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product versus a bad product. They have no conception of the craftsmanship that’s required to take a good idea and turn it into a good product. And they really have no feeling in their hearts about wanting to help the customers.
People get confused, companies get confused. When they start getting bigger, they want to replicate their initial success. And a lot of them think, somehow there’s some magic in the process of how that success was created. So they start to institutionalize process across the company. And before very long, people start to get confused that the process is the content. And that’s ultimately the downfall of IBM. IBM has the best process people in the world. They just forgot about the content. That happened a little bit at Apple too. We had a lot of people who were great at management process. They just didn’t have a clue about the content. In my career, I found that the best people are the ones who really understand the content and they’re a pain in the butt to manage. But you put up with it because they’re so great at the content. And that’s what makes great products. It’s not process it’s content." - Steve Jobs
People get confused, companies get confused. When they start getting bigger, they want to replicate their initial success. And a lot of them think, somehow there’s some magic in the process of how that success was created. So they start to institutionalize process across the company. And before very long, people start to get confused that the process is the content. And that’s ultimately the downfall of IBM. IBM has the best process people in the world. They just forgot about the content. That happened a little bit at Apple too. We had a lot of people who were great at management process. They just didn’t have a clue about the content. In my career, I found that the best people are the ones who really understand the content and they’re a pain in the butt to manage. But you put up with it because they’re so great at the content. And that’s what makes great products. It’s not process it’s content." - Steve Jobs
Good point.
It could be that the brief was:
'We need a UI that's really WOW and COOL to detract from our AI mess.
Yeah, we know that you were already working on something for IOS 27 and it's not quite ready yet, but we need you to accelerate it for the 26 series.'
I anticipate the next iteration will be called Solid Glass and will be the Snow leopard of UI refinements
Truly I was confused by the liquid glass, because I remember a very clear vision path statement from Ive were the idea was eventually, or the ideal was, that the iPhone itself would be like a piece of glass in your hand (removing it's form but not it's function, blending it in with the world around you, VisionOS is more like simulating that design exrpession virtually before it is materially possible.
Liquid glass is the total inverse of this vision, and actually a mockery.
Doing a quick search on this topic I found this image which actually visualises my point, here is a iPhone that is glass like and almost removes itself placing the expected UI in prominence, and that's it - ultimately liquid glass is the cart before the horse.
All you have to do is go to Settings > Accessibility > Display > toggle Invert colors, and Invert colors mode > Liquid
No one will miss him. Last decent and working UI was iOS 6
Apple UI design head Alan Dye is leaving the company and transitioning to Meta, reports Bloomberg. Dye took over Apple's user interface design team in 2015 when former Apple designer Jony Ive transitioned to Chief Design Officer, and he's held that position since then.
Dye has been at Apple since 2006, joining the marketing and communication team as a creative director. He transitioned to Jony Ive's user interface team in 2012 to work on iOS 7, and he worked on subsequent iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and visionOS design updates. Most recently, he helped develop the Vision Pro interface, and he oversaw the rollout of the iOS 26 and macOS 26 Liquid Glass design revamp.
Apple plans to replace Dye with Stephen Lemay, a longtime Apple designer who joined the company over 25 years ago. In a statement to Bloomberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook praised Lemay.
Dye is joining Meta as chief design officer on December 31, and he will help Meta in its efforts to further break into consumer hardware. Dye will head up Meta's new design studio, overseeing hardware design and software design with a focus on improving Meta devices like headsets and glasses with AI features.
Article Link: Apple UI Design Chief Alan Dye Leaving for Meta
I like the new design. The flat, oversimplified, boring designs and logos of the 2010s are finally going away and more companies are moving away from it. It was the millennial grey of design.
I see all these Apple pundits on Mastodon throwing up pictures of Scott Forstall. Besides it not being clever or funny I assume they realize that would be a huge demotion. Also hating Alan Dye doesn’t mean this should come back:
I’m sorry but that iOS 6 podcasts app is worse than anything in iOS 7 or 26.
I’m sorry but that iOS 6 podcasts app is worse than anything in iOS 7 or 26.