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Facebook hires iPhone interface designer, Mike Matas

By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011 at 6:42 AM

Facebook has just acquired Push Pop Press, which also includes one of its co-founders, Mike Matas, who happened to work for Apple once upon a time. Matas was a human interface designer at Apple, and he designed a lot of what you see in the iPhone, iPad and even on your Mac. What could this possibly mean for the social networking service?

ReadWriteWeb reports:

So the mysterious young designer who designed much of the interface for the most-loved mobile device in history, then began to work on transforming reading into an act befitting the future, then began working on making personal environmental responsibilities like turning off the lights in your house fun…is now at Facebook.

The iPhone and iPad interface is undoubtedly one of the most intuitive mobile platforms today. For Facebook, picking up one of those interface designers is huge for its future if it puts Matas to good use with its own interface. The social network’s own mobile apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry could get a huge facelift, too. The possibilities, though mostly speculative, are nearly endless.

Matas designed the camera, photos, maps, settings and battery display for the iPhone. The iPhone doesn’t ship with very many apps and Matas designed at least four of them. He also designed the Photos app for the iPad. He designed Time Machine and Photo Booth for the Mac. He’s not Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design guy at the very top, but he’s pretty high profile none the less.

Here’s to hoping this means big things for Facebook’s web, mobile and app versions in terms of its UI and design. With huge talent in its force, perhaps Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t too far off when he said that Facebook would one day become even bigger than Apple or Google. We’ll have to wait and see about that.

[Via: RWW]

About The Author

Marc Flores

Marc has been a mobile fanatic for the better part of a decade and has had more devices pass through his hands than he would care to count. Originally from Los Angeles and briefly in San Francisco, Marc now lives in Brooklyn where, unlike Will Park, he longs for simpler times and simpler technology. All the while, he writes about gadgets and wireless technology as he tinkers, hacks and ultimately breaks most of his gadgets in the process. Marc has written about the mobile industry for Boy Genius Report, MobileCrunch, Laptop Magazine and has had his work appear in the Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, CrunchGear and more.

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