Drag & Drop That Just Feels Right

I’ve built plenty of “demo” drag-and-drops, but they always felt… cheap. The card jumps, the drop zones don’t line up, and the whole thing screams unfinished. This time I wanted a board that felt closer to Trello — buttery smooth and satisfying.

Setup

• I used @dnd-kit/core for sensors and collisions.
• Wrapped my columns in SortableContext.
• Layered in Framer Motion so items eased into place instead of teleporting.

Once I added spring animations, the whole thing just clicked. Cards didn’t just move — they glided.

Challenges

I kept it simple and stuck with closestCenter for collision detection — it felt good enough for this demo, and I didn’t run into anything major that needed tweaking.

Takeaways

If you want users to trust your UI, polish the details. A smooth drag interaction doesn’t just look good — it makes the whole app feel reliable.