According to Bloomberg, Meta has recruited Alan Dye, who serves as Apple's Vice President of Human Interface Design. Since Jony Ive's departure from Apple in 2019, Dye has been instrumental in shaping the aesthetic and user experience of the company's offerings, and he is now set to bring his expertise to Meta.
Dye is expected to join forces with Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, leading a recently formed studio focused on developing hardware, software, and artificial intelligence offerings. This team will incorporate ex-Apple designer Billy Sorrentino, Meta's interface design director Joshua To, an industrial design group under Pete Bristol's direction, and metaverse design and artistic units headed by Jason Rubin. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed these details in a Threads update.
In his announcement, Zuckerberg explained that the studio aims to merge elements of design, fashion, and tech to shape future products and user interactions. He added that the vision involves viewing intelligence as an innovative design element and exploring possibilities when it is plentiful, advanced, and oriented toward human needs.
Bloomberg indicates that Apple plans to fill Dye's position with Stephen Lemay, a long-time senior designer there since 1999 who has contributed to every major interface project. Given Apple's emphasis on confidentiality, it's challenging to attribute specific innovations to individuals, yet Dye contributed to key advancements such as the visionOS user interface and the introduction of the Liquid Glass visual style.
Meta has achieved notable progress with its Quest series of virtual reality devices and, lately, the Ray-Ban Meta intelligent eyewear, but the firm is eager to expand its consumer hardware lineup with input from Dye and the new studio. Upcoming items could encompass enhanced iterations of the Meta Ray-Ban Display and the Neural Band add-on.
This move marks another instance of Apple losing a prominent designer to rivals, following Evans Hankey's exit in 2022 to collaborate with Ive; Hankey now contributes to OpenAI's forthcoming hardware project alongside other ex-Apple staff. Dye's shift to Meta stands out especially amid reports of Apple developing items that could heighten rivalry with the social platform, including the premium Vision Pro as a VR alternative and potential smart glasses of its own.
Update, December 3, 5:54PM ET: Incorporated details from Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads announcement regarding Alan Dye's recruitment and Meta’s emerging design studio.