Battle of the Drupal 6 Admin Themes
The admin area of a Drupal site should be themed differently according to recent usability research. The idea is that an admin or a content editor needs the context that they are doing admin functions, which an admin theme can provide. The concept of having an admin theme is different for many Drupalers. While numerous Drupal shops have been using them for quite some time, a lot of discussion has focused on using the theme for the site in the admin area. Drupal 7 is embracing admin themes by using one and taking the admin area to a whole new level. But, we don't have to wait for Drupal 7 to have a smoking hot admin theme. Let's take a look at 3 good admin themes for Drupal 6.
Rubik
Rubik is a theme created by Development Seed and hosted on Github. For it to work properly you, also need the Tao base theme. One of the great things about about Rubik is the icon queues to different actions. Some people think visually and the icons help them do just that.
Seven
Seven is the admin theme that ships with Drupal 7. It was designed by Mark Boulton and Leisa Reichelt as part of the d7ux effort. Mike Crittenden back ported it to Drupal 6 so we can use it now. Seven is a very clean and accessible theme.
RootCandy
The RootCandy admin theme by Marek Sotak has been around the longest and is the most customizable. It comes bundled with 3 themes, color module support, and more.
I am using myself Admin module version 1 + slate and I like it
Another option is Polpo
Thanks for pointing out the Polpo theme. For those insterested, it can be found at http://drupal.org/project/Polpo
I held off pointing to the Slate theme. While it is in Atrium and I have used it, I'm unsure of its future since it doesn't have a home in the Admin 2.x module.
all 3 are just stylized versions of the same cluttered unintuitive design. There's gotta be a better way.
I think the "better way" you're looking for is something like the Admin module (version 2) which provides a new pop-out interface for accessing all of the usual admin things, with hooks available for other modules to tap into and extend further.
An admin theme alone isn't going to be enough. You need something like the admin module or the admin menu module to provide that something extra for navigation.
The question is unintuitive for whom. Site builders need a different experience from content managers.
I was a big fan of Root Candy until encountering Admin 1.x and Slate. I'm running that on most of my sites now. Based on these screen shots, I might have to take a look at Rubik now, and consider moving to Admin 2.x.
OTOH, it's inevitable that as I start implementing D7, I'll start changing my remaining D6 sites to the Seven theme, so maybe I should just go there now.
Micah
I have used Seven for awhile now and personally really like it. Working on a site right now with Rootcandy, we'll see how the site admins like it.
Is there a standard way how I can prevent blocks from showing up when the admin theme is activated?