Products · Product
Interface Builder
Raised as a usability problem by 61 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 45 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Merging storyboards is painful when several developers edit oneUnreviewed
20102026- Drag-and-drop storyboard editor makes Auto Layout more painful than necessary2025-07-26
- Feels slow and quirky to work with, and storyboard merge conflicts are nightmarish2022-12-15
- Storyboards limit precise control and duplication and work poorly with version control2017-07-27
Drag-and-drop metaphor broken, making wiring actions and outlets harderUnreviewed
20102026- Apple broke drag-and-drop UI metaphor, making actions and outlets harder to wire up2024-11-15
- Dragging connections to outlets is painful and leaves stale references that cause crashes after deletion2015-03-27
- Wiring buttons to outlets by dragging feels gimmicky and pointless to the commenter2010-07-23
Small adjustments to complex layouts scramble constraintsUnreviewed
20102026- Constraint-based layout in Interface Builder is harder to understand than the old springs and struts2024-08-27
- Tedious to specify layout constraints; constraints become unclear later2022-05-08
- Small adjustments to complex layouts completely scramble the constraints2013-03-31
Interface Builder falls out of sync after renames, leaving broken referencesUnreviewed
20102026- Interface Builder gets out of sync with code after renames, forcing manual hunting for broken references2013-04-17
- Interface Builder makes random changes and upgrades that cause bugs when a nib is touched2013-01-16
- Objects created in code behave differently from ones dragged into Interface Builder, requiring debugging2012-02-21
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Auto Layout constraints in Interface Builder are fiddly and hard to use2026-08-03
- Drag-and-drop storyboard editor makes Auto Layout more painful than necessary2025-07-26
- Obscure icons like springs and arrows made layout tools confusing and hard to learn2024-12-22
- Apple broke drag-and-drop UI metaphor, making actions and outlets harder to wire up2024-11-15
- Generated XML is near-unintelligible, causing merge conflicts that must be fixed manually2024-09-18
- Manual layout with snap guides becomes a fight for complex designs, requiring undo games to restore positions2024-08-27
- Constraint-based layout in Interface Builder is harder to understand than the old springs and struts2024-08-27
- Animations on every element make the interface slower and more distracting to use2024-03-08
- Feels slow and quirky to work with, and storyboard merge conflicts are nightmarish2022-12-15
- Tedious to specify layout constraints; constraints become unclear later2022-05-08
- Interface Builder got worse after merging into Xcode; storyboards slow it down2022-01-17
- Interface Builder is a pain and hard to use for apps across devices and orientations2021-12-16
- Setting corner radius requires typing layer key-path in a separate hidden tab2021-01-27
- Storyboard infrastructure leads to nil-heavy, stringly-typed code that is hard to work with2018-09-28
- Building UI in a visual editor is slow and clunky for development2018-05-02
- Tools push developers to customize UI separately for each screen size2017-11-14
- Layouts built in Interface Builder are a pain to debug2017-11-09
- Blind programmers can't practically create a UI in Interface Builder2017-09-27
- Storyboards limit precise control and duplication and work poorly with version control2017-07-27
- Moving fully laid-out controls to a new container breaks down and becomes hard2017-06-04
- Moving one element breaks constraints on others, so layout takes constant fighting2016-12-19
- Opening storyboard shifts views misplaced, creating spurious version control diffs2016-11-14
- Storyboard editing is useless beyond trivial layouts and versioning is a nightmare2016-09-20
- Must click each view to see how constraints relate to neighbouring views2016-04-03
- Storyboard XML is obtuse, unnecessarily rewrites untouched parts, making review and merging hard2016-03-08
- Interface Builder's XML is hard to read and hand-edit, and is painful for larger teams2015-10-08
- Editing Interface Builder XML directly is almost impossible to do2015-10-08
- Reviewing teammates' xib changes requires checking out and opening them in Interface Builder, adding friction2015-10-08
- Storyboard diffs are large and unintuitive, making team merges tedious2015-10-08
- Interface Builder is so frustrating the commenter wants to take a rifle to Cupertino2015-06-08
- Dragging connections to outlets is painful and leaves stale references that cause crashes after deletion2015-03-27
- Drag and drop tool gets only about 80% of what developers want, forcing hacks2015-03-16
- Gets 80% of the way, then forces outrageous hacks and verbose code for the rest2015-03-15
- Causes the developer deep frustration when used, leaving them in shock2014-09-02
- Interface Builder UI designer is considered terrible to use2014-03-22
- Easy to accidentally change segues and constraints, causing hidden breakage that takes long to diagnose2014-03-03
- Layout view does not match how the UI actually looks in the app2014-03-03
- Too many nibs to manage as the app grew, slowing development down2014-03-02
- Nudging many controls around in code is a huge pain2014-03-02
- Storyboards cause merge conflicts in teams and get unmanageable as apps grow2013-04-17
- Moving a control one pixel can scramble constraints and delete user constraints2013-04-17
- Interface Builder gets out of sync with code after renames, forcing manual hunting for broken references2013-04-17
- Constantly having to click through many element layers, and the hierarchy inspector is poor2013-04-16
- Too restrictive for building complex, dynamically changing interfaces2013-04-16
- Hard to find what code is making a button behave a certain way2013-04-16
- Auto-layout in Interface Builder is impossible to make do what you intend2013-04-16
- Double-clicking a control doesn't create event handler; must drag special connectors, confusing2013-04-16
- Interface Builder is very slow and Xcode becomes unresponsive when switching2013-04-16
- Author could not figure out how Interface Builder works, so they built the UI in code2013-04-16
- Small adjustments to complex layouts completely scramble the constraints2013-03-31