The AI Can't See What It Drew

Short summary

A developer recounts redesigning an app mascot while pairing with AI, discovering that visual decisions can't converge in prose — you need to render and look. An AI-generated SwiftUI anchor value looked fine in code but produced a visual bug (arms reading as legs) that only rendering exposed. The key lesson: AI writing UI code is blind to its own output, so the only cure is to render and inspect, and always check call sites before changing parameters.

• •Visual design decisions can't converge in prose — render prototypes and look at them
• •AI-generated UI code can contain visual bugs invisible in code review (e.g., wrong anchor rotation)
• •Always grep call sites before deleting or changing parameters to avoid silent regressions

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.