I often need to make the following decision when starting a web-project with a back-end and front-end and wonder what you would decide.
Do I create a separate front-end and back-end or do I blend the back-end with the front-end to create a consistent and single interface?
The last option creates some extra work in terms of hiding elements for site navigation, repositioning things and putting some logic in views (MVC), but keep the functionality of both the front- and back-end. When separating the two you sometimes get users who keep switching between front- and back-end or extensively use a preview function.
When it’s a small project I often decide to use blending; giving the (often only) administrator the possibility to edit for example the productinformation right inside the product-view when logged in. In larger project I mostly decide for a separate back-end.
What do you do? Leave a comment and tell us!