Writing web applications for almost 10 years, I can’t count how many admin tools I’ve written. Having worked on so many, I’ve developed a programming pattern for creating them. However almost every time I make a new one, I find myself trying a new layout and navigation style.
Frequently I look at GoPlan, Basecamp and Wordpress (3 tools I also use quite often) and notice how similar their layouts are. Is this because they are doing the right thing? Or is it because they are lazy and copied each other? Should I be modeling my admin tool layouts like theirs? As a developer, I don’t have as much time to think about those things. I’m too busy making the tool work.
I am curious why so much time is spent by designers creating the front-end of a web site, but it’s usually up to the developers to create the layout for the admin tool. The usability and design of admin tool should be just as important as the public facing web site. An admin tool should be a continuation of the site look and feel, but in my experience it looks like a completely different site.
Some people say I have fairly good design sensibility. However I am not as good as a lot of designers who do it full time. This probably applies to most web developers. So next time you’re involved in creating a web site with an admin tool, consider asking the designer for at least a simple layout and style guide for the admin. They don’t have to create a design for every page, just a mockup of a sample layout that shows all types of form fields with labels, typography treatment and a navigation system. It will make a developers life much easier.
What is your experience as either a user or developer of an admin tool? What works and what doesn’t?
We tried out several different tools and couldn’t find one that did everything we needed. Our primary need was time tracking. This was a few years ago when there were far fewer options available. We tried going the route of duct-taping features onto an open source tool. That worked for a little while, and really helped us define what we would need from an admin tool, but it wasn’t a long-term solution.
In the end, we rolled our own admin tool that fits best our workflow needs as a small web development shop; task and time tracking, reporting, document sharing, and billing. We have since turned it into a web-based project management tool called Intervals. It definitely covers the features of basecamp and goplan combined, but probably not wordpress.
We just finished creating the admin tool for DeskAway.com - a project collaboration tool with inbuilt Reporting. Luckily our designer who had earlier worked with the UI mocked up a UI for the admin tool. Everyone liked it and it was approved within days and it saved the developer a lot of time!