I'm pretty sure Julie Larson-Green came from Microsoft Office during the overhaul of that product, which was an amazing leap forward in UI design for Microsoft. The "ribbon" certainly had/has its detractors (and I was one at first), but I soon realized what I didn't like about it was that it wasn't the old, broken system I had learned to use over my lifetime. For nearly everyone I worked with in customer service, approaching the system as an "Office Newbie" was several times easier under the new system.

She also led the Win 7 overhaul, for which I'm forever thankful if only because of the changes to how title bars work (being able to drag to maximize or cover 1/2 the screen, for instance). It was so intuitive that one day I was complaining about how Windows DIDN'T do that, but was on a Win7 box and it worked. I know Jobs likes to use the word "magic", but that was the first time I experienced it with a UI.

I'm wary of the changes I see outlined here, but I think that might, again, be the consequence of having adapted myself to bad design that's been prevalent. Past experience has me hoping I'm wrong to be wary, and I'll be delighted if I am.