Huawei Appoints Former Apple Creative Director as Chief UX Designer

Huawei's Android skin - Emotion UI - might soon look like Apple's iOS. The Chinese conglomerate has hired Abigail Brody, former Apple creative director as its chief user experience designer.

The Chinese telecommunications giant, currently the third largest smartphone manufacturer by volume, said that Brody will be working in the company's device and consumer division, and oversee the interface design on Huawei lineup of products. The Chinese company will create a design studio in the United States.

"Based on our plan, Huawei is going to set up a user experience design studio in the US, 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," a translation of the company's official statement reads, courtesy CNBC. According to Brody's LinkedIn profile, she joined the company in September.

Brody left Apple in January 2011 after working at the company for almost 10 years. In her stay, she worked on the design of a range of products including and especially the first iPhone and the first software version of iOS, and iCloud, including cloud-based solution for photos, documents, apps, notes, and calendar.

"Assigned by the Apple executive team, Abigail played a key role in creating new projects as individual design contributor, from inception and prototyping, through formal proposal, executive review for funding, to development and launch, e.g. for the iPhone's iOS1, aspects of Mac OS X and Aperture," her LinkedIn notes.

Her profile reveals that she has also held the role for vice president of global design for eBay and PayPal between December 2010 and October 2012. Huawei, which already has a global presence, was at the limelight of attention for launching the Nexus 6P, which it has manufactured. Earlier this month, the company also became the top Android shipper in China, surpassing Xiaomi.