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Why We Built Our Own Admin Dashboard

29 Mar 2026 · Ibukun — Data Druid Tech · Updated 29 Mar 2026

The problem with Django Admin

Every Django developer knows the admin. Grey boxes, tiny text, desktop-only, zero personality. It works — in the same way a hospital cafeteria works. Technically food, but nobody is excited to eat there.

We were building WorksiApps as a public lab. The public-facing site had cultural patterns, organic shapes, animated mockups. Then you'd log in to manage content and land in a 2005-era form with Times New Roman dropdowns. The disconnect was painful.

What we wanted

  • Mobile-first design — we draft blog posts from our phones
  • A real dashboard — page views, drafts needing attention, activity feed
  • A rich editor — not a textarea, but a proper writing surface
  • An API — so AI tools could create drafts for us
  • Our design language — Akoti components everywhere

What we built

The Lab. A custom admin at /lab/ with bottom nav on mobile, sidebar on desktop, Akoti Editor for rich writing, product management, analytics, REST API, and a sandbox system for live HTML demos. Built in a weekend. Django views, inline CSS, zero npm dependencies.

Your admin is a product too. Build tools that make you want to work.