Apple Design Chief Alan Dye Leaves for Meta
Mark Gurman at Bloomberg shared a blockbuster scoop today: Alan Dye has left Apple.
"Meta Platforms Inc. has poached Apple Inc.’s most prominent design executive in a major coup that underscores a push by the social networking giant into AI-equipped consumer devices,” Gurman reported earlier on Wednesday. “The company is hiring Alan Dye, who has served as the head of Apple’s user interface design team since 2015, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Apple is replacing Dye with longtime designer Stephen Lemay, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the personnel changes haven’t been announced.”
When reached for comment, Apple gave Bloomberg a statement from CEO Tim Cook.
“Steve Lemay has played a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999,” Cook said in the statement. “He has always set an extraordinarily high bar for excellence and embodies Apple’s culture of collaboration and creativity.”
Dye’s departure—he starts his gig as Meta’s chief design officer on New Year’s Eve—marks the second time this week a senior Apple executive is making an exodus. On Monday, the company announced AI boss John Giannandrea would be leaving his post while naming Amar Subramanya, who left Microsoft for Apple, as his replacement.
I have nothing substantively to add towards the analysis of Dye’s tenure in Cupertino. I can say, however, Jason Snell’s story on today’s news is well worth a read. What I will share, though, is I had a chance to speak with Dye once in the recent past, albeit off the record. Back in September 2022, at the iPhone 14 launch event at Apple Park, I got to spend maybe 5–10 minutes in the hands-on area conversing with Dye all about the then-new Dynamic Island. I remember feeling excited about the accessibility prospects of the new feature during its reveal, and I told Dye exactly that. His eyes were locked onto mine as I explained to him how and why I thought the Dynamic Island would be beneficial to me as a person with disabilities, and he seemed genuinely moved and fascinated by my first take thoughts. Like every other Apple executive I’ve spoken to, on or off the record—Cook included—Dye responded by telling me accessibility is a company-wide value, adding his team works closely with its comrades in Accessibility.
From an accessibility point of view, I can’t help but wonder if the aforementioned Lemay will step into his role and similarly embrace accessibility’s vital part in good product design—much in the same vein to how I think about how Cook’s eventual successor will sustain, and possibly evolve, Apple’s pledge of support to the disability community.
Maybe Dye’s exit (and Lemay’s ascension) will be a “coup” for disabled people?
