Apple design executive Alan Dye has left to become Meta's Chief Design Officer (CDO), and longtime Apple designer Stephen Lemay will fill his role. The author considers Dye's past decade a terrible period for Apple's software design and welcomes Lemay's promotion -- a designer who prioritizes how things actually work (interaction) over surface decoration -- as the best personnel news for Apple in decades. While this change appears to be a response to Meta's talent poaching rather than a deliberate reform by Apple's leadership, it could prove to be a crucial turning point for getting Apple's UI design back on track.
1. Alan Dye's Departure and Stephen Lemay's Rise
Today's news reports that Apple design executive Alan Dye is leaving the company to join Meta as Chief Design Officer. Bloomberg and other outlets have framed this as a "coup" where Meta has poached a heavyweight from Apple, but the author sees it exactly the opposite way. This is the best personnel news for Apple in decades.
The past decade under Alan Dye's leadership of Apple's software design team was broadly terrible. Problems were not being fixed -- they were getting worse.
His successor is Stephen Lemay, a longtime Apple veteran. While Lemay is not well-known publicly, Apple insiders hold him in high regard.
- A true interface designer: Unlike Dye, Lemay has spent his entire career focused on interface and interaction design.
- Craftsmanship: Colleagues praise his obsessive attention to detail and craftsmanship -- qualities that were painfully lacking during the Dye era.
Of course, not all of Lemay's work has been perfect (for example, some iPadOS multitasking features). But everyone who has worked with him is thrilled about this appointment.
I don't think there was a better choice than Lemay.
2. Apple's Internal Reaction and the Hidden Backstory
The internal mood at Apple is "too good to be true." Employees had resigned themselves to the belief that Dye would never be pushed out, and nobody expected him to leave on his own. (If you truly cared about design, there is nowhere to go but downhill after leaving Apple. What people overlooked is that Alan Dye did not actually care much about design.)
This creates an interesting contradiction:
- Dye was not fired -- he left voluntarily for Meta.
- Apple chose as his successor someone with the opposite profile (interaction-focused rather than visual-focused): Lemay.
If Apple's leadership was satisfied with Dye's direction, why not promote one of his lieutenants? Conversely, if change was needed, why was Dye not removed sooner?
Loyalty Is the Key
The author suspects Lemay's promotion was driven not by "design direction" but by "loyalty." Zuckerberg is throwing enormous money at poaching talent. Billy Sorrentino, one of Dye's close associates, is reportedly also leaving for Meta. From Apple leadership's perspective, Dye's circle became people who could leave at any time -- "unreliable." Lemay, who was not part of Dye's inner circle and had been loyal to Apple for years, was the safe choice.
Although this personnel move may not have been motivated by leadership recognizing the need for a design overhaul, under Lemay's leadership, the changes we have desperately wanted could finally happen. This could be the best thing to happen to Apple's HI (Human Interface) design since Steve Jobs's death and Scott Forstall's ouster.
3. The Problems of the Alan Dye Era
Putting Alan Dye in charge of user interface (UI) design was the biggest mistake Jony Ive ever made.
- Background mismatch: Dye is not a UI designer. He came from fashion branding (Kate Spade) and advertising agencies (Ogilvy), doing print ads and brand work.
- Apple Watch and fashion: Bringing in someone from the fashion industry made sense when the Apple Watch launched in 2015, but putting him in charge of all Apple platforms was a mistake.
"Design Is How It Works"
The most infuriating moment at this year's September iPhone event was when they quoted Steve Jobs's famous line: "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
The problem with the Dye era was its exclusive obsession with "how it looks." Even the visual elements like app icons got worse, but the more serious issue was that "how it works" broke down. Dye was the epitome of the person Jobs criticized -- someone who thinks design is merely a "veneer."
4. "Liquid Glass" and the Decline of macOS
The author does not unconditionally hate the current "Liquid Glass" design language. iOS 26 is quite good. But macOS 26 Tahoe is a visual mess.
- Design without context: The Mac is a platform for bigger screens, multiple windows, and complex tasks. It needs depth, layering, and clear indicators of input focus.
- The problem of lightness: As the author wrote in 2010, "The Mac's weight (gravitas) is what allows iOS to stay light." Liquid Glass is too light and flimsy to handle the complexity the Mac must carry.
In particular, the "clear/tinted" setting added in OS 26.1 is evidence that Dye should have been let go long ago. Internal voices raising concerns about basic "how it works" issues like text legibility are the reason this option exists in general settings rather than buried in accessibility menus.
5. Talent Exodus and Cultural Disconnect
During Dye's tenure, numerous talented designers left Apple for LoveFrom, OpenAI, and io (Sam Altman and Jony Ive's joint venture). Their reason for leaving was always the same: "Great work is no longer possible at Apple."
Linguistic Disconnect from Jobs
The fundamental problem with Apple's design is also revealed in a linguistic disconnect. When Steve Jobs introduced the Aqua UI in 2000, he naturally used technical terms like "radio button" and "key window." Designers and programmers spoke the same language. But Dye's team reportedly dismissed designers who used such terms, saying they "talked like developers."
I swear I have been in a conversation where I brought up the phrase "key window" and no one knew what it meant. (Testimony from a former Apple designer)
This is like a cinematographer telling their camera crew, "Stop saying nerdy things like f-stop." Something was fundamentally wrong.
6. In Closing: The Road Ahead
Under Stephen Lemay's leadership, these problems should be addressed. He is someone who understands both the principles of design and engineering. At minimum, things will stop getting worse, and the bleeding of quality and talent should subside.
Alan Dye is not without talent. But his talent lay not in design -- it lay in corporate politics. He knew how to please the executives, which is how he held his position for so long. He may do well at Meta, too -- not because of his design skills, but because at Meta, what matters is not design but "doing what Zuckerberg wants."
One last favorite reaction to today's news:
Both companies' average IQs have gone up.
Note: The version numbers in the text (iOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, etc.) reflect the original article's 2025 timeframe.