Huawei is hiring a former Apple employee to lead its design team

Few companies are as good at designing gorgeous products as Apple, which is why its such a big deal for Huawei that the company has hired Abigail Brody, the former creative director for Apple. She’s joining the Chinese company as its chief user experience designer, which means she’ll be leading the team that designs the user interface for Huawei’s products. She won’t have to move to China, however, as Huawei is also opening a design studio in the United States, which couldn’t come at a better time, considering how it wants to become popular in the West.

Ambitous Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei has snared former Apple creative director Abigail Brody as its chief user experience (UX) designer. The appointment was reported by a number of Chinese tech sites before Huawei released a statement in Mandarin on social media platform Weibo, saying Brody would take up the role in its device and consumer division, where she would oversee the interface design on Huawei products. 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’s LinkedIn profile says she was creative director and hiring manager at Apple for almost 10 years to January 2011, working on the design of the first iPhone as well as the iCloud. (Jonathan Ive is Apple’s high-profile chief design officer, and has run Apple’s design team since 1996.) “Abigail’s R&D work defined the way Apple’s applications look and feel,” Brody’s LinkedIn profile says.