This update is genuinely one of the most frustrating UX changes I’ve experienced in a professional design tool 😡 😡 😡The new left-hand navigation panel permanently steals ~60px of horizontal space on small screens, which is completely unacceptable. That space is my primary working area — the canvas. I am literally losing room to do my job so a panel can sit there doing nothing most of the time.Yes, Variables, Files, Assets, Find, and Library are important.No — they are NOT minute-to-minute actions.They do not deserve permanent, always-visible real estate. This panel is idle 90% of the time, yet it constantly punishes my workflow.On smaller displays, this feels especially hostile. Instead of prioritising the canvas (the entire reason Figma exists), the UI forces a bulky navigation column that adds zero value moment-to-moment and actively makes precision design harder.This change feels like it was designed for: Large monitors only Product demos Feature discoverability …not for actual day-to-day designers working fast, zoomed in, and space-constrained.What makes this worse There is no way to fully hide or disable this panel Collapsing all UI is a blunt workaround, not a solution There is no respect for screen size or user preference The previous solution worked better and did not need fixing The two solutions that would actually fix this Remove this panel entirely and revert to the previous UI behaviour At an absolute minimum: let users completely hide this panel permanently Not temporarily.Not “collapse everything”.Not keyboard gymnastics.A simple, explicit option to turn it OFF.Right now, this feels forced, wasteful of space, and completely misaligned with how professionals actually use Figma. Please prioritise the canvas again — it is the core of the product, not an accessory.

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Figma, Your New Left-Hand Menu/Panel Is a Disaster – 7th Jan 2026

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
January 8, 2026
95 replies
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This update is genuinely one of the most frustrating UX changes I’ve experienced in a professional design tool 😡 😡 😡

The new left-hand navigation panel permanently steals ~60px of horizontal space on small screens, which is completely unacceptable. That space is my primary working area — the canvas. I am literally losing room to do my job so a panel can sit there doing nothing most of the time.

Yes, Variables, Files, Assets, Find, and Library are important.
No — they are NOT minute-to-minute actions.

They do not deserve permanent, always-visible real estate. This panel is idle 90% of the time, yet it constantly punishes my workflow.

On smaller displays, this feels especially hostile. Instead of prioritising the canvas (the entire reason Figma exists), the UI forces a bulky navigation column that adds zero value moment-to-moment and actively makes precision design harder.

This change feels like it was designed for:

Large monitors only
Product demos
Feature discoverability

…not for actual day-to-day designers working fast, zoomed in, and space-constrained.

What makes this worse

There is no way to fully hide or disable this panel
Collapsing all UI is a blunt workaround, not a solution
There is no respect for screen size or user preference
The previous solution worked better and did not need fixing

The two solutions that would actually fix this

Remove this panel entirely and revert to the previous UI behaviour
At an absolute minimum: let users completely hide this panel permanently

Not temporarily.
Not “collapse everything”.
Not keyboard gymnastics.

A simple, explicit option to turn it OFF.

Right now, this feels forced, wasteful of space, and completely misaligned with how professionals actually use Figma. Please prioritise the canvas again — it is the core of the product, not an accessory.

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NBF

New Member

Look, i’ll be short. Can you PLEASE implement a shortcut or option to hide the new left panel that you’ve forced into the canvas areas? I can appreciate that some find it useful, so am not advocating for it to be removed if that’s the case, but at the very least can you please provide more design oriented people the option to hide it? It might only be minor to some, but i’ve found it so incredibly intrusive with forcing a reduction of my canvas size for the sake of UI that can be found in the navigation.

Again, I understand that this might be minor to most out there, but as someone who works with design more than prototypes for my workflow, everytime I open Figma now it’s just infuriating constantly seeing a side panel I neither want nor asked for. It’s so frustrating knowing that reducing the left sidebar won’t actually reduce the new, forced navigation that offers no benefit to people like myself, but instead simply reduces my layers panel width.

I also fully appreciate why a lot find this beneficial also, so am not advocating at all for it to be removed, but having absolutely no ability to hide this panel or reduce it’s location / size just seems like poor UI as it offers no benefit to users like myself at the cost of my working space.

Jason Xenarios

This side bar is pain, it interferes with the existing narrow panel width. It looks bad, isnt functional, I only mainly use File and only rarely use Assets and Find so why do we persist this UI.

Please allow users to hide this side bar and try another UI idea. I liked the floating panels, I liked how it was before too.

I would have made more sense to add these quick access icons to the floating bottom UI bar.

Jason K

New Member

I think my biggest problem with it is that you don’t know if a file has any library updates unless you go to the Assets tab. Previously, the library update notification was always visible, but now it’s hidden until you are in the Assets tab.

Assets tab is where the Library Updates are shown.

erin.io

New Participant

I still don’t have this new sidebar and I am hoping I never do...

Tala Ilaian

New Member

Is it just me or is the new location for assets harder to access? I couldn’t find it at first and now it’s in an inconvenient location away from my workflow. I liked where it was before 😓 it definitely seems like a ‘if it’s not broken don’t fix it’ situation because my wrist hurts constantly needing to move all the way to this new nav for to search for my asset library.

I know there’s also a short cut for searching for assets too…but it was easier to just go from looking at my layers & pages to assets.

Filipp_EGOROV

New Participant

I’ll be much more straightforward than the original poster. The new column in the left panel is incredibly annoying. It takes up a precious chunk of the viewport and makes the UI asymmetrical. On top of that, it doesn’t add anything compared to the previous layout. I don't know what the idea behind it was, but personally, I don't see any benefits to this decision.

UIUX_Design

New Member

This UI3 side bar takes up valuable screen space.

Is everyone at Figma in an echo chamber? Everyone is complaining about this addition, listen to the community.

Janine

New Member

this!! i can’t even find it anymore or where to publish the library - no one needs more ai crammed into everything and making the UX unusable

James_willo

New Participant

Yeh library is terrible too. Icon is right at the bottom of the product, unless you’re in Assets in which case it’s at the top. But then if you are in file, the library button at the top becomes close panel, which isn’t too much different from the library icon (both rectangles with a line down) so I still click the wrong thing!!!

Willow_Shelley

New Participant

This past week there was an update to the Figma Web App. There is now another vertical navigation bar. This update is NOT good because it takes up 50px of width on an already width-challenged space.

Please revert this change. It is reducing the amount of space we have to design. If you cannot revert it, please at least let us minimize it.