UI Debugging by making use of third-party apps
Although Xcode brings us the Debug View Hierarchy tool , it’s often not enough for more advanced UI debugging. Luckily enough there are some great third-party apps available to speed up your workflow in finding or resolving UI bugs.
Reveal App
Inspect. Modify. Debug.
Website: revealapp.com
Price: $59 per personal license or $119 per seat, commercial license
Reveal is basically an advanced Debug View Hierarchy tool. It’s great for quickly trying out different colors or constraint offsets and allows you to adjust your running app on the fly. It can be attached using CocoaPods or a specialized breakpoint in Xcode. A downside is that you have to apply the changes to the codebase yourself in the end, as all changes are only in memory for the currently running app.
Check out their features page to get a complete overview of what it can do for you regarding UI debugging.
Flawless App
Build pixel-perfect apps faster
Website: flawlessapp.io
Price: $49 a year
Flawless App helps us developers implement a given design pixel perfect to make our designers even happier. No more rulers and comparison in apps like Sketch, but instead comparing designs directly within the currently running app. It works by selecting any image or Sketch file which then gets overlayed inside the iOS Simulator.
Sherlock
Give your iOS Simulator superpowers
Website: sherlock.inspiredcode.io/
Price: Unknown as it’s still in beta
Sherlock is only just launched and at the moment of writing actually still in beta. It comes with more or less the same features as Reveal, but the way it works is a bit different. In contrast to Reveal you have a floating inspector view which allows you to click anywhere on your app in the simulator to start modifying your layout. Great features include jumping to the modified class in code and previewing the currently open view on different device sizes.
I like to speed up even more
If you like to speed up, even more, you can check out my other blog posts related to improving your workflow.
