# Auto Layout Is A UX Disaster
IMM, auto-layout results in disastrous UXs.
There are two kinds of code:
1. code for controlling machines, code that is machine-readable
2. code for communicating to human readers why code for controlling machines has been written the way it was - DI, Design Intent. Code that is human-readable.
When laying out code for DI - human consumption - spatial relationships matter. Do you want power-assist to help you lay out spatial relationships? Yes. Do you want power-assist to change the layout every time you make a change? No.
When laying out code for machine consumption, spatial relationships don’t matter. Current electronic machines (aka “computers”), work only with sequential relationships. Spatial layout doesn’t matter to machines. Auto-layout applied to this kind of code is just a waste of electrons.
Summary: layout only matters to human readers. Human readers grok things that are laid out spatially. Each time the layout changes, human readers need to expend brain-power to re-grok what’s being presented. Brain-power is bounded - users can burn brain power to think, or, they can burn brain power to re-grok what they’ve already grokked.