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Question

Sidebar Navigation & Zoom Usability Issues

  • July 22, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 14 views
Taimosa_Eregie

I am having difficulty using Figma due to a few usability issues.

First, hiding the layer panel should only hide the layers themselves, not the entire left navigation bar. That way, I can still access features like variables and agents without expanding the layers panel. The 'Minimize UI' button could also be placed on the left navigation bar. Alternatively, the navigation bar buttons could act as toggles to show or hide their respective panels—for example, clicking the 'Files' button would show or hide the layers panel. This feels much more intuitive. Additionally, switching from a fixed component view to a floating component view feels quite jarring.

Second, when the layers panel is minimized, zooming in on a selected object doesn't bring its full dimensions into view because parts of it get obscured by the properties panel. I'm not sure if this is a bug, a limitation of 13-inch displays, or just standard behavior, but it's an unexpected and incredibly frustrating experience that I'm sure many other users share.

I honestly don’t think I can continue using Figma unless these issues are addressed or I get a widescreen external display, as I am currently working on a 13-inch laptop.


I have a GIF and two images below to buttress my points.
 

 

 

 

 

1 reply

adamsmasher
Figmate
  • adamsmasher
  • Figmate
  • July 23, 2026

Hi, ​@Taimosa_Eregie. Thanks for your post! I’ve owned and worked from 13” laptops in the past, so I can appreciate working with a pretty tight screen size. 

 

How often do you find yourself needing to hide the UI? On small screens, I found getting really comfortable with hiding the UI with the keyboard shortcut made the most impact for me, that I could quickly get the UI out of the way when I was working with tools, then bring it back when I needed to adjust properties or layers. For me, minimizing was usually enough with Shift + Command + \ (or Shift + CTRL + \ in Windows). 

 

With zoom to selection, it works based on the dimensions of the canvas shown. I can see why that’s an issue for you with the properties panel on top, though. I have a habit of using that, then holding down Command (or CTRL in Windows) and scrolling to zoom out slightly. From your last screenshot, it looks like you might already be doing this. 

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