John Gruber Shares Scathing Commentary About Apple's Departing Software Design Chief

[MacRumors]

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.

Specifically, 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"

Article Link: John Gruber Shares Scathing Commentary About Apple's Departing Software Design Chief

 

[AlexStudios]

So even Apple themselves is happy about this… Ironic.

 

[tennisproha]

Well good riddance then

 

[Diopter]

The follow-up post is pretty good, too: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/04/alan-dye-instagram-story

 

[vertsix]

Get his ass!

 

[antiprotest]

The same people who praised Apple designs these recent years will now celebrate this and also praise Apple for choosing a good replacement. They will praise Apple if it decides to double down on current designs, and will praise Apple even more if they end up taking another direction.

 

[rappr]

It’s sad watching these old school Apple commentators entering their “grumpy old man” phase.

You don’t agree with the design direction Apple’s taken in recent years. Totally fair. Design is subjective. But just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean the man doesn’t care about design.

Different people have different tastes.

 

[C-Dub87]

The quote at the end of the article is a real chef kiss one.

The average IQ of both companies has increased.

 

[Rogifan]

I supported Gruber when Apple essentially blacklisted him over that “rotten in Cupertino” post. But now he’s just being nasty going after one individual. Especially so with what he posted this morning. Not a good look.

I’ll be curious if Mark Gurman corroborates anything in Gruber’s post. Of course if he contradicts any of it, even a tiny bit, Gruber will take a swipe at him too. He’s done so before.

 

[Nyx1]

He leave John everyone happy Apple, customer, fanse ven this website celebrate for him leaving Apple

 

[Paddle1]

We'll see. It will be interesting to see how Liquid Glass evolves next year.

 

[Yourbigpalal83]

Ok...i got to be honest here, but the design language of IOS ever since 7 has been meh at best. All of it felt like change for change sakes and AT BEST, they felt like themes for an operating system. Now granted, ever getting a ROG Xbox Ally X and having to deal with Windows again to opperate the system, it makes me really appricate IOS and MacOS even more because atleast IOS still feels intuitive and logical. Windows on the other hand feels flat, illogical, intrusive with its pop ups and random "Oh we are going to update for you RIGHT NOW in the middle of a game or program'...but trust me fellow apple sheep, as much as there are valid issues with Lquid Glass, WINDOWS IS ALOT WORSE!

So the idea of us getting someone who actually cares again about UI leading the charge at apple again, makes me smile.

 

[SoldOnApple]

This makes Apple leadership sound catty.

 

[vertsix]

It’s sad watching these old school Apple commentators entering their “grumpy old man” phase.

You don’t agree with the design direction Apple’s taken in recent years. Totally fair. Design is subjective. But just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean the man doesn’t care about design.

Different people have different tastes.

I don't know - making design that decreases legibility and makes things more convoluted and complicated for the user is outright objectively bad design.

 

[whitby]

The interesting thing about this is that, according to Gruber, Apple had not planned to 'fire' Dye but that he resigned, surprising the Apple hierarchy. So, his replacement by someone who seems to be considered superior in capability is happenstance. If true it is not a good look for Apple's management. But, of course, we have no real knowledge about what went on behind the scenes and it could be more machiavellian than originally thought. We will probably never really know and it does not matter.

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.

 

[Rogifan]

It’s sad watching these old school Apple commentators entering their “grumpy old man” phase.

You don’t agree with the design direction Apple’s taken in recent years. Totally fair. Design is subjective. But just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean the man doesn’t care about design.

Different people have different tastes.

“From the stories I’m aware of, the theme is identical: these are designers driven to do great work, and under Alan Dye, “doing great work” was no longer the guiding principle at Apple. If reaching the most users is your goal, go work on design at Google, or Microsoft, or Meta. (Design, of course, isn’t even a thing at Amazon.) Designers choose to work at Apple to do the best work in the industry. That has stopped being true under Alan Dye. The most talented designers I know are the harshest critics of Dye’s body of work, and the direction in which it’s been heading.”

This is a pretty serious charge to make. Also why the need to take a swipe at Apple’s competitors? This notion that Apple alone is the only company designers ever wanted to work for sounds like something a Steve Jobs cultist would say. I’m a fan of Apple. I own many Apple products. But they’re not the only company that has good design/taste.

 

[groove-agent]

Design is subjective. But just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean the man doesn’t care about design.

You could objectify the success of a UI design by surveying customer's satisfaction with the UI.

 

[SAIRUS]

In our new app design…we are actually looking at iOS 6 for inspiration at times.

Basically how the status bar will be constant and we may bring a little shadow and texture to the backgrounds.

Also full immersion, buttons will trigger the haptic engine, and feel a bit familiar.


Apple should do something similar. Have a consistent design language. Even the disclosure indicator is missed.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

It’s sad watching these old school Apple commentators entering their “grumpy old man” phase.

You don’t agree with the design direction Apple’s taken in recent years. Totally fair. Design is subjective. But just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean the man doesn’t care about design.

Different people have different tastes.

Gruber burned his Apple bridge last year with his post about Tim Cook fondling Trump’s balls. Not really sure how many more positive Apple articles will come from his website.

 

[Pezimak]

So even Apple themselves is happy about this… Ironic.

Yeah, despite paying him no doubt hundreds of thousands at least a year and placing him in a position to lead design at the company. It doesn't shine well on Apple either. But at least has is now gone and maybe they can move forward from this?

 

[Jarman74]

At the very least, he expects the move to "stop the bleeding" at Apple, both in terms of quality of work and talent retention.

Not sure why any UX move would cause anyone who has already left Apple to regret their decision—after all, top AI talent is in high demand and, for good measure, often more handsomely compensated elsewhere than at Apple.

By all means, let’s give the upcoming Siri a fair chance. But unless Apple truly manages to right the ship, its AI talent will continue to keep an eye out for better opportunities.

 

[Pezimak]

It’s sad watching these old school Apple commentators entering their “grumpy old man” phase.

You don’t agree with the design direction Apple’s taken in recent years. Totally fair. Design is subjective. But just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean the man doesn’t care about design.

Different people have different tastes.

If they didn't come up with stupid buggy OS design choices then no one would criticise them, hell if they didn't have so many bugs it would at least help.

 

[groove-agent]

Overall I think this is good news. The current Liquid Glass UI elements are questionable. Admiittingly it's a cool effect on iPhone - when you move the iPhone around it appears in 3d, but you don't typically move the phone around when you use it. Otherwise, the UI is horrible due to contrast issues (as supported by the recent updates to address these issues).

That being said, Apple may have a long-term roadmap for this 3d UI especially given their development with AR/ VR.

 

[porkflyingfish]

In macOS he is probably the guy who make the System Preferences so hard to use. And viewing available storage on your Mac has never been that hard.

 

[rappr]

If they didn't come up with stupid buggy OS design choices then no one would criticise them, hell if they didn't have so many bugs it would at least help.

The bugs are Federeghi’s problem.