Admin Panels That Don’t Suck! [Slides]

Collis Ta'eed on Jan 31st 2011 with 61 comments

Admin panels are a feature of many web development projects, and in my experience rather a lot of them are less than gorgeous. As we’ve mentioned before here on Nettuts+ there is a very affordable, very professional looking solution thanks to the ever popular admin templates section on ThemeForest. But don’t listen to me, here’s a slideshow about Admin Panels that Don’t Suck:

Admin Panels that Don't Suck!

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By Collis Ta'eed

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Hello! I'm a web and graphic designer who loves blogging, startups and everything about the web. You can find me on Twitter and I blog at The Netsetter

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http://mediagearhead.com Giles Wells
I am currently building the back end system of homerede.com on the Administry template from ThemeForest (http://themeforest.net/item/administry-admin-template/113435). It is by far the best admin template I have worked with. Leaps and bounds above the free one that I updated to html5 and css3 at http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/free-admin-template-for-web-applications/
http://twitter.com/z0r z0r
Loved the slides, the 70s style.
By the way, I am in need of an admin panel design right now, that makes this presentation even more special.

bob kabob
70′s..!?! Are you kidding? Try the 50′s….

Uncle
This post got 99% advertisement content.

Stimul8d
Agreed, this is nothing but advertising. Shame on you. :-)

Ali Baba
I agreed too. Nothing useful about this post.
Matt
this site used to be nice, but now it is just turning into eye-pollution. I guess the massive sidebar full of ads was not enough…

Dennis
Come on guys, this site provides such a valuable content, why not leaving them advertise their marketplace items? If you don’t like it, just don’t read it!
By the way, I am sure this will be helpful to some developers :)

Greg
Dennis is right, these guys always provide us with awesome free articles and tips, nothing wrong with advertising from time to time their services/products… BUT… they should put a warning or something so I don’t get surprised the article was just 99% advertisement…

Yigit
not 99%! its 100%

http://www.delphiki.com delphiki
Someone actually got paid to publish that?
(Don’t want to be mean, but…)

http://www.code-pal.com Sumeet Chawla
Someone who published this owns nettuts :P

bob
thanks, nice advert, maybe next post you could move all the adds from the right into the post!
http://www.jeffadams.co.uk Jeff Adams
Hey. Thanks for this promotion, as an Admin designer over at Themeforest (http://themeforest.net/user/jeffeatworld/portfolio) we sometimes get missed in the marketing-machine that is Envato.
Some people ask me why I only do Admin interfaces so I thought I’d share the answer with all of you:
I enjoy creating functional sites that look great. It’s really that simple.
As a freelancer, I’ve had to make some really shoddy back-ends for clients in order to make their site CMS friendly and I’m ashamed at some of the shortcuts I made – after all no-one would see the backend right? Wrong.
Invest in a really good Admin theme, take the time to brand it to your clients and adapt the documentation that comes with it and believe me – that in itself is worth 1000′s.
Best of luck with your own projects – please do come and see the Admin section of Themeforest. I’m not just self promoting – there’s honestly loads of really, really good themes there and I’m in awe sometimes at some of the things people are doing with them.

http://www.markdijkstra.eu MarkDijkstra
Nice one, but to bad you dont show more admin panels and that you only show highsellers(which doesn’t means that these are the best one’s available on TF)

http://www.jeffadams.co.uk Jeff Adams
Wow. Alot of negative comments here.
I agree this is basically advertising but part of the remit of Nettuts is to do “round up” posts every now and then.
Granted they shuold have perhaps gone down a normal blog post route but I’m really grateful my work is being advertised on other blogs/marketplaces.
Some people have mentioned they’d like to see a tutorial on how to use an Admin Template – what sort o fthings would you like to see? Are we talking about how you would use it in the real worlf for example?
http://www.markdijkstra.eu Mark Dijkstra
(my post wasn’t a reply to your comment Jeff ;))
Sad to see a lot of negative comments but i have to agree with a lot of you, not the best way to post something like this here….

http://omarabid.com Abid Omar
This post is utter-shit Collis!!! :( :(
I think the problem here is on building the Admin panel. If you were to build the Admin panel, then you are going to use a template (free, premium, made by yourself, whatever).
A good tutorial is on how to use that template to build that Admin panel.
(Marketing Fail)

http://www.luke-king.com Luke
Well they are mostly aimed at developers. Any person building an admin panel to begin with can most certainly code a template surely. I think you mean the real tutorial would be learning how to design a admin panel ;)

Antoine
I would like to have a tutorial or a movie about how to use an admin template

Brad
I would like to see a tut on building an admin panel and all that goes into it

http://www.sz-media.org Sz-Media
Please change the Headline from:
Admin Panels That Don’t Suck! [Slides]
to:
Admin Panels That Don’t Suck! [Advertising] :(
Max Rose-Collins
Well this sucks!
Johan
Well, I have to agree with alot of the other posters.
This is only advertising.
Imho, the themes are not even that useful in real world scenarios.
Lucas
Purely advertising.
http://jessewilliamson.net Jesse
Anybody else feel like Envato just tried to sell them a timeshare? Like, “Hey, come on down and check out these great examples of Admin Panels,” then you find out it’s a really bad sales pitch. Shame.
Mv
Clicking the feed link, I’ve expected some sort of overview of admin panels in various CMSes or something similar. I’ll make sure to read intro description from now on. Until the next similar blunder.
Promotions like the one above are more appropriate for affiliate networks. There are many “clean”, quality tutorial sites on web development on the net, be careful how you use the trust your audience associates with you, Tutsplus people.
http://prop-14.com Randy
Ok. Agreed this could have just gone on the sidebar for a month or so, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that we get great content here on a regular basis.
Compare what we learn here for free to taking a college course, buying a $50 book, etc…?
I’ll live with a little advertising. No prob.

Mv
How about identifying advertising as such? The first example that comes to mind – John Gruber and his daringfireball.net feed. It’s clear right away what is sponsored and what is his stuff.

http://www.brantsteen.com Brant
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this “advertising”.
Hell, I found it worthwhile… I never thought to look for admin themes on ThemeForest.
Although, I was hoping to find some for Django, which there didn’t seem to be.

http://www.brantsteen.com/blog Brant
Of course, upon close examination, I realized that it was a site specifically for WordPress themes…

Johan
…and if you would have examined even closer you’ll see that it’s not just for wordpress. none of the admin-themes are for wordpress, they are all just html/css.
Brant
Hah, very true. And on said “even closer” examination, I realized just that.
I figured I should stop commenting though…

http://www.razerdesign.com Kevin
I wish you guys would put up a tutorial on how to incorporate one of these admin panels into a wordpress installation or into a custom project. That would be the most helpful for me. Thanks though!

http://www.murmp.com Jonathon
Exactly and what I was thinking/hoping this post was going to be about. Sorry, but the negative feedback is warranted.

http://petemcbride.ca Pete
That was really lame. I’m fine with advertising, you’ve got to make money, but don’t present it as a post to get people to view it.
For me, the reputation of this site has just took a nose dive with that little stunt. Pretty shifty.
peter
I want the 30 seconds of my life back that I wasted on this post
edwinhollen
There are so many ways to advertise through Envato. Why must you disguise this advertisement as an article? TutsPlus is a place for learning, not a place for tricking people into viewing ads. And right after that article from Jeffery Way about how advertisements make your blog less respectable.

http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
Whoa whoa — I never said that advertising makes your blog less respectable. I said some people think that.
My point was that it’s 100% necessary evil. You don’t have to read these sorts of postings if you don’t want to. We still post high quality tuts and articles every day. But, sporadically, we need these round-ups and such to help fund future articles and such.

edwinhollen
Good point, Jeffery.
But there are many tutorial blogs (albeit probably not of the high quality that makes up Tuts+) that offer as many, or more, advertisements as Envato. I am fine with the sidebar and top banner ads because they aren’t intrusive, they’re outside of the content area, and they don’t force me to interact with them, but an advertisement in the form of a blog post is too far.
I’m not saying Tuts+ shouldn’t have ads; every blog needs some sort of consistent revenue. But this type of advertising is unreasonably intrusive. At the same time, the comments here seem to be a pretty healthy debate so I’m not entirely angry- rather just annoyed.
On a lighter note, I think your tutorials are boss, Mr. Way. Keep up the great work.
Mv
Jeffrey, we don’t have to read them, sure. I guess many would appreciate it if you identified promotional posts as such (“Promo”, “Advertisement”, “Sponsored”, etc.) – comments for this post are a good indication of that. In my humble opinion, that would only add to positive experience that is Tutsplus.
http://code-junkie.com Brannon
While I understand your need to advertise enough to make money, I think it’s important to distinguish where marketing begins to erode your customers’ trust in your brand. First off, I think that if you’re going to post a sponsored ad in a blog post then you should label it as such right away. You can say something like “This is a sponsored post for: _________”. Secondly, I think that it would be ethical to try to ensure that if you’re going to make a sponsored post that you try to make sure that it’s something that a lot of people who use your site will find useful.
Of course Tutsplus has proven to be an invaluable resource for me and I completely understand that a resource like that can’t and shouldn’t be completely free. However, just as your advertisements sidebar is typically made clear as advertising and includes things that people will still find useful, blog posts like this should be the same way. There’s no reason you can’t advertise and keep your readers trust and good will at the same time.
I think that even outside of ethical considerations, there are appropriate buisness considerations to be made. Obviously a lot of people aren’t comfortable with being marketed to just the way this post has marketed to them. I know from my own experience that when someone markets to me in a way that makes me feel taken advantage of or misused, I’m often even less likely to like or buy the product being advertised. In this way, not considering how your marketing comes across isn’t even helpful to the product you’re marketing.
I completely understand needing to find more ways to market on your site, but I just think that with the right tweaks a marketing post could be mutually beneficial and generate trust as opposed to losing it.

http://www.imageworksllc.com Joshua Briley
Shame on you for thinking of us as people who wouldn’t recognize this as advertising. This type of post is the reason I left other blogs and began reading yours. Shame on me for thinking you’d be different. Disappointed.

Raymond
HOnestly, just get lost here. Nettuts doesn’t need you. You don’t even pay to view tutorials here anyway. Yeah shame on you for thinking that you’re the boss here

http://www.drivvedwebbyra.se Fredrik
Yeah me to some more tut about the admin plz
http://eyemade.ch René
Hey guys, where are the original slides with the good looking admin backends? Just saw advertisement for ThemeForest. Ah… wait…. uff.
http://www.justforthealofit.com/ TheAL
If any of them are admin-only themes for Drupal, I will def take a look. Drupal has some modules for making custom admin panels for clients, but those still would need themes to spruce them up.
http://www.brettjankord.com/ Brett
To all that are bashing this post, imagine if your were one of the designers/developers of one of those admin templates. This post would probably be pretty cool to you, you get some free marketing to get people to check out your product. I agree this post could have been formatted better maybe as a tutorial of how to use and set up one of the admin templates instead of slide show with a whole bunch of “oh” faces, but I don’t think it’s as bad as many as you are describing. You gotta look at both sides of it, and if you don’t like the post, don’t read it…
Rich
Wow, it’s February 1st, not April 1st. Why the trick to get readers to view 24 slides of ads? Making a buck is fine but trickery to do it is bad karma.
http://www.deanographics.com Dean Karasinski
It’s funny, I think about this alot. I guess it would be nice to provide the complete experience to the customer but overall it is the front end that matters. As long as the backend is easy to navigate and use then there really shouldn;t be that much of an issue.
http://sirestudios.com Tommy
Almost all of the Admin skins on Themeforest are exactly the same. They all use the same jQuery plugins, show almost no functionality with Ajax request, etc. Really though, almost all of them are exactly the same. There is no unique interface like Wufoo, WordPress, etc.
http://www.twitter.com/brandongcarroll Brandon
#2
http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/general/11-lessons-learned-after-running-a-massively-popular-blog/
I actually found the post kind of helpful. I often forget how much great content is on the Envato Marketplace. That being said, I think presenting this in a slideshow was a bad idea. It made it feel like an advertisement.
Even with the same content, a list-style roundup probably would have been better received.
So, you guys are a couple hundred awesome posts to one not-so-great one. :)
lilwiki
To all the bashers. Yes it is an advertisement but there is a lot you can learn just by checking out the panel demos. For example, I liked the look of some of the panels, checkout the source and discovered a couple of jquery plugins that I wouldn’t have found, all without buying.
However, I still bookmarked panel page and may buy it in the future or just check out the html source again.
To all the whiners who think they are being mistaken for sheep, you may cover your ears and keep shouting that you are not sheep. But worse than true sheep you are missing both that which has been directly pointed to AND the hidden gems around it that the sheep wouldn’t see.
itdoell
Everyone here needs to lighten up, this exactly what Jeffrey Way talks about in his most recent article. Nettuts+ is a business, it needs to make money, don’t get pissed off because you’ll get the occasional article designed primarily for that purpose.
I don’t know about everyone else, but Envato/Nettuts+ has been an invaluable resource for me. Posts like this make it possible for them to continue existing, enjoying their lives, and expand. You can’t expect them to limit their income just because you don’t like to waste 5 seconds of your time skimming an article to find out it’s an ad.
Plus, it’s not like this is the only article they’ve posted this week.

http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
If a promo post ever goes up, it will always be supplementary to the daily tutorials and articles.

Bjoern
Hey Collis,
I like the 70s style people very much.
Can you tell me where I can get them?
Thanks very much!
Charlie
Just want to add my voice to the negative comments on here. This slideshow felt like a waste of my time and I wasn’t expecting such a blatant bit of ‘advertorial’ from the heading and the synopsis that came through on my emails.
Appreciate that nettuts is a business and needs to make money etc – but it would be nice if these advertorial pieces were more clearly demarcated so I don’t have to waste time in the future reading them, or writing grumpy comments!
Thanks nettuts.

Raymond H.
Nettuts makes articles so people can learn. They are wasting their time on people like you who don’t appreciate the site. YOu think Nettuts needs you?? You’re not paying anyway, you’re just a leecher here. GTFO

http://hyperhtml.net Bryce Carr
I don’t mind this advertisement/article at all, the only thing I have to complain about is the clunky interface of the slider. Personally I would of preferred a better setup of slides. It was slow and at some points I couldn’t click the next slide. I love admin templates, I would of prefered more description with the screen-shots, would of made this post a little extra worthwhile or even tips on making your own admin panel.
http://www.ecustom.ca/ Damon Bridges
Ok readers, no, haters of this post. Chill.
Why do you have to trash such a high quality blog for a post that is promoting the hard work of people trying to make some passive income. I mean, looking at some of these, I was inspired. I hardly even knew of Themeforest’s Admin Skins section, but now I check it out in depth.
So cheers to Collis for posting this, and nobody listen to those trying to give Nettuts a bad rap for this post.
van Itterbeek Ive
I agree that it is 99% advertisement, but with all the reply’s I think the people at Envato now have an other vision of how people feels about the products and giving them a forum to see how you think about it. Not that quite bad at all. They have great products but now they know that people are also interesting about how to implant them in their workflow like WordPress, PHP , CMS, etc. So by posting such a post and getting reply’s from their readers they better understand what the readers of this awesome blog wants! So I Think this is not bad at all for the readers and the owners….It’s how I see it! It is in both interest….