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Last week, we talked about life after an iPhone app release, and I gave away some free promo codes. This week I wanted to chat about Interface Builder and how much easier it makes developing on the Mac. Interface Builder comes with the developer tools and allows programmers to easily lay out and visualize what their interface will look like. When it comes to creating this part of the app, it would be a lot more difficult without Interface Builder.

If you’re like me, you absolutely love coding the back end to apps, but you have very little design sense. To me, the fun lies in solving the problem, not necessarily in making a great interface (although I do know that it is just as important as the back end). Thankfully Interface Builder makes it very easy. IB offers an Inspector pane that allows developers to simply drag and drop the basic iPhone interface objects such as sliders, button, and text fields. This takes out all of the hassle of using code to properly position everything by coordinates and what not. Surely there are times where it is better to code the interface, but IB streamlines the process tremendously when that is not the case.

Along with simply allowing these objects to be placed, IB can also be used to customize their appearance more easily. Colors can be changed, images can be placed in appropriate places, and heights and widths are changed with a simple drag. However, the real power comes in where IB allows the developer to customize the UI elements behavior. Connecting an element to the task it is supposed to do when acted upon is as easy as dragging a line from the element to the name of the function it will run.

Basically, without IB, it would still be possible to create gorgeous apps, but it wouldn’t be nearly as easy or fun. The inclusion of this app into the developer tools really helps streamline the process and take some of the stress of off developers. I know I’d be lost without it.

See more iPhone Developer Intervention articles.