It feels like the Apple pundit/blogger/podcast world increasingly writes stuff for each other. I’m sure Gruber’s piece will be mentioned on the Upgrade/Connected/ATP (and probably other) podcasts.
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John Gruber Shares Scathing Commentary About Apple's Departing Software Design Chief
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Disappointing to see Gruber joining the bitter dorks on here and adding to the mob mentality
He’s still a human being at the end of the day.
He’s still a human being at the end of the day.
So why does Federighi’s bio say he’s responsible for the user interface? There’s no way Liquid Glass didn’t involve lots of software engineers at Apple.This is a report from 2015;
Apple’s newly appointed design execs report to Cook, not Ive
Part of Ive’s transition to a more hands-off rolewww.theverge.com
"Newly updated corporate bios for Apple's design team show that the company's new vice presidents of user interface design (Alan Dye) and industrial design (Richard Howarth) will report to CEO Tim Cook — not Jony Ive. The change is part of Ive's transition to a new, more hands-off role as Apple's Chief Design Officer and was announced earlier this year, with the British designer explaining in a profile for the UK's Daily Telegraph that the role "frees [him] up from some of the administrative and management work."
When Jony Ive left, Alan Dye's and Hankey's teams reported to Jeff Williams. Now that Williams is retired, The design teams now report to Tim Cook, again.
Yes, but if people on MR are praising Apple it's safe to say there may have been a timeline shift.
Gruber certainly doesn’t describe them as slackers.
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.
What I’m seeing on social media is incredibly brutal. It’s amazing the way social media turns people into jerks.
That article is sketchy. Especially when he mentions that Alan Dye couldn't get a job at Lovefrom as a barista when Jony Ive himself put him in charge of user interface design back in the day. Come on. He also makes the common mistake of treating people like they are static entities. Someone could be great in his 20s and 30s and gradually lose the spark and motivation as he gets older.
Ive isn't good at software design, and Ive selected Dye. Imagine the kick in the teeth for people at Apple who were in line for this position and would have done pretty well in it, when Jony chooses an advertiser for the job.
Makes you want to punch an invisible cat.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.
It's like when Bill Maher fans talk to each other about how the latest episode of "Real Time" is a must watch!
(I have two family members like this)
I am 100% with Gruber on this one. Good riddance.
Let's hope Apple does the right thing and backs away from Liquid Glass. Rapidly.
Let's hope Apple does the right thing and backs away from Liquid Glass. Rapidly.
But he left Apple 6 years ago. Nobody else at Apple was allowed to replace him? The only way he could be gone is if he left on his own?
And the piece mentions Apple employees who left because they felt doing their best work wasn’t the mission anymore and they chose to go work for…LoveFrom/io?
Design should be useful, not pretty.
That’s design 101 class that iOS 26 missed.
That’s design 101 class that iOS 26 missed.
If it is useful, being pretty is just a consequence.
I'm not defending him being a jerk to Dye, but his broad strokes criticism of Dye comes from a place of caring about software design. Months ago he had a former Apple software designer on his pod and they spent an hour criticising Dye's work. One Mac software guy at a meeting was given out to (perhaps mocked or shouted at) for using Mac UX terms Dye wasn't familiar with—as John hinted to in his article. John was talking about macOS a lot and how the whole UX is a mess. He mentioned the time he had a software design question for Dye about drop-shadows for watch hands on watchOS and he realised after he asked the question that Dye had no idea what he was talking about and wasn't sure if it did or not. He said that's when he knew Dye hadn't a clue. This is what John means in this article when he said that Dye doesn't care. Lead software design person at Apple, in John's mind, knows every facet of the software intimately. Remember, it was Dye who was first brought in to lead the software design team for Apple Watch—he needs to know this one.
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I’m also sure he reviews the software in beta and gets a chance to weigh in as well.
We're all acting like Dye was the only one in the company that thought Liquid Glass was a good idea. Apparently Craig and Tim don't have any veto power. And now that we have put the guy who was also on the same design team that gave us Liquid Glass in charge, things will... change? 🤷♂️
I wasn't sure of his background but looks like Dye came from a print background in Graphic Design and was elevated to Creative Director and eventually led the team in developing Apple's user interface.
To be fair, that's not unlike Jony Ive's journey at Apple.
Leadership should always listen to experts in their respective disciplines. Ultimately, it will still come down to Creative heads to make the final decisions though.
To be fair, that's not unlike Jony Ive's journey at Apple.
Leadership should always listen to experts in their respective disciplines. Ultimately, it will still come down to Creative heads to make the final decisions though.
No idea what you're talking about. Software people in Apple had years of experience and Ive chose an advertiser to lead software design at Apple instead of all of them—he selected Dye—I was saying Ive isn't a good software designer and this is part of the reason he picked Dye. Many people were likely overlooked within Apple for that job in place of a guy with no deep software experience.
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Talk about getting waked on the whacked out. This isn't just meant denigrate Dye, but to paint Meta with the same brush. Acolytes beware, the day you walk away from the mothership they'll come after you, gladly placing knives in your back.