The Paint Drop: a masterclass in responsive design

The Paint Drop is a mobile paint shop that has onboard paint mixing capabilities driven by a colour consultant. It's a quirky idea that's reflected by its website, courtesy of the talented team at Viget.

Viget's frontend developer Dan Tello says an RWD approach was necessary: "The site's audiences include painting contractors, property managers and home builders, who we expect to primarily use the service on job sites [not] behind desks."

What's striking is the page size, weighing in below 400kB on desktop and 300 on mobile devices. The design defies its weight via an array of imagery, iconography and typography, without burdening users with a heavy page load. It looks great at any width - "rather than [device-specific] breakpoints, I'd decrease browser width until things looked broken or cramped, add a breakpoint and repeat," says Tello.

The Paint Drop is a masterclass in what can be achieved by setting a realistic performance budget and working effectively within those constraints so that a remarkable development feat such as this goes unnoticed by the user.

This article originally appeared in .net magazine issue 244.

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