A number of Chinese tech sites had started floating a report regarding the appointment of former Apple creative director Abigail Brody as its chief user experience (UX) designer. The reports were later confirmed by Huawei in Mandarin on social media platform Weibo. The company stated that Brody would take up the role in its device and consumer division.
A translation of the statement said:
Based on our plan, Huawei is going to set up a user experience design studio in the U.S., tracking and leading pioneering design concepts in the industry, working with China’s domestic design teams to provide the best user experience of Huawei’s ultimate products.
Brody will now be responsible of taking care of the interface design on Huawei products. According to her LinkedIn profile, she acted as creative director and hiring manager at Apple for almost 10 years up to January 2011. She has gems on her resume in the form of her contribution to the design of the first iPhone as well as the iCloud.
Her profile also states that her most recent work experience was one as vice president of global design at eBay and PayPal. The ex-Apple employee was hired by Huawei a day after the company reported a 63 percent on-year jump in its third-quarter smartphone shipments to 24.7 million units, amid slower growth in the wider smartphone market.
It has been a good year for Huawei. While appointing an Apple exec well add more teeth to company’s design philosophy, a report earlier this week had also talked about Huawei taking up the top spot in China, away from the more celebrated Xiaomi.
