Attempts have been made to completely reimagine the admin interface. Grappelli is a very popular skin that extends the Django admin with new features, such as autocomplete lookups and collapsible inlines. With django-admin-tools, you get a customizable dashboard and menu bar.

Attempts have also been made to completely rewrite the admin, such as django-admin2 and nexus, which did not achieve any significant adoption. There is even an official proposal called AdminNext to revamp the entire admin app. Considering the size, complexity, and popularity of the existing admin, any such effort is expected to take a significant amount of time.