When it comes to developing UI components for iOS, it seems every week I am involved in a discussion or debate over best practices. The conformist side is following the “Apple Way” of using Xcode storyboards and iOS Auto Layout as the best tools to develop your iOS UI views. The consultant side leans toward a broader “it depends” look at best practices.
There are alternative, valid approaches in developing responsive, well designed UI components other than using storyboards and Auto Layout. Sometimes, these approaches are the “best way”.
Two articles that explore these approaches in detail are:
iOS User Interfaces: Storyboards vs Nibs vs Custom Code by Antonio Bello, iOS Developer at Toptal Engineering. This article does a great job laying the groundwork to answer the inevitable “it depends” response.
Layout Managers for iOS Views. This is an article I wrote when Auto Layout was in its infancy. It still has relevance and I have been thinking how it could compliment Auto Layout when the “right way” to implement a UI component is custom code.
I recommend taking the time to read these articles and gain useful insight into finding the right fit to build your iOS UI components.
About the Author
Torey is a Chief Technologist at Object Partners Inc. specializing in Mobile & Enterprise technologies with over 19 years of professional experience. Most recently he has led a number of iOS-related projects, applying his expertise in building HTML5 and Native Objective-C & Swift-based apps for iOS (iPad/iPhone). He has led the development of various mission-critical applications and supports a pragmatic delivery approach using various agile methodologies. During his career he has gained expertise with iOS, Java/JEE ecosystem and its related open source (ie: Spring-related, Tomcat), Groovy/Grails, JavaScript & technologies (ExtJS, AngularJS) to deliver rich internet applications (RIAs), and various commercial technologies (ie: IBM/Tivoli, Oracle, Tibco).