Bad Dye Job

Where were Gruber’s posts about Dye so obviously being a problem before his exit?

Quickly googled his website and found this from January 2021:

> [...] I’m reminded of all the UI and interaction designs and changes in iOS and MacOS that are just bad. There’s a real sense that Apple’s current HI team, under Alan Dye, is a “design is what it looks like” group, not a “design is how it works” group.

And this, from June of this year:

> Re-watching Jobs’s introduction of Aqua for the umpteenth time, I still find it enthralling. I found Alan Dye’s introduction of Liquid Glass to be soporific, if not downright horseshitty.

He has been even more critical on his podcast. This has been a repeated refrain and increasing over the years. My first reaction, when I read the news, was "Apple bloggers and podcasters will be THRILLED."

His podcast with Louie Mantia in July was pretty clear with it, though it also suggests why he’s given significant criticism of the design direction, but mostly just has quips and shade thrown at Alan Dye on the blog:

> I get to ask Alan Dye about [the shadows on Apple Watch faces]. And he was like, oh, we render a shadow? And I was like, oh, you never even looked. I just instantly realised he’d never really even looked at it. Like, somebody at Apple has, but Alan Dye didn't. […] It just suddenly came to me, oh, he doesn't do the job I thought he did.

He’s had the position for 10 years and you found two mentions?

How many times would appease you?

There are a lot more. Here’s another I found in under half a minute:

https://daringfireball.net/2025/08/macos_26_tahoes_dead_cana...

You seem to have already had your mind made up, though, and are maybe not actually interested in evidence.

At least 50% as harsh before his departure than he is afterwards.

All criticism of Apple’s UI would count, as Dye was in charge of it and ultimately responsible, whether he is named in the article or not.

And Gruber has been at least this harsh on the UI before.

How about this sarcastic and brutal bit, on his podcast (end of July):

"But maybe instead of firing him, they start selling pizzas out of the back of Apple stores and Alan Dye can run that and do the graphic design on the boxes. Do the menus. I think Alan Dye could kill that with his Levi's experience, right?"

That's rougher than anything he has said post-firing, in my opinion.

He doesn't even mention his name in this article.

Let's all pretend he totally wasn't going out of his way to prevent burning bridges with his Apple connections but starts throwing Alan under the bus after he's gone like he was so obviously the problem at Apple.

We don’t have to pretend; there’s ample evidence. Here’s one from 2020 that specifically calls Dye out: https://daringfireball.net/2021/01/my_2020_apple_report_card

You seem to have an axe to grind against Gruber, are immune to all evidence against your preconceived worldview, and are projecting this behavior onto the other side of the discussion.

The same example shared upthread.

So two mentions in 5 years?