UI3 Feedback

I guess there’s no need for me to repeat what has been said before. I’m on the same page with most of the issues people have pointed here.
What I want to say is that:
First, generally I dislike the UI3 update, I’ve used it for a few good days and I couldn’t no more, far too many changes, too much frustration. Some updates might be justified, others don’t make sense at all (hidden features/actions/functionalities, floating panels, toolbar bottom-centre gets too much attention and space, etc).
Second, I was hoping I’d see an evolution of UI2 instead of the UI3 revolution. The good changes in UI3 got lost between too many bad ones and too much frustration; with an evolution approach all these changes could have been spread over many updates, the UI polished slowly, and the frustration avoided. Everyone would have been happy!

Totally feel you on the new Figma UI! Those gaps where panels can’t attach are such a hassle and do mess with your design flow. And yeah, the toolbar at the bottom can be a pain, especially if it blends with your design. It’s like they’re catering to newbies with the toolbar shift, but for power users like us, it’s a step backward. Fingers crossed they tweak it in the next update!

Sorry Figma team, but UI3 sucks… I agree with all the points above 😦 I hope you will keep “switch to previous UI” button

Yeah, that’s one of my my main issues with it.

As far as I understand they wanted to align it more with FigJam (and Slides), but they really misunderstood their users/customer base.

• FigJam is a tool catering to POs/Managers/Business Analysts/UX Researchers/(So, mainly non-designers)
• Slides is a tool for POs/Managers/Business Analysts and makes Designers happy because they won’t have to use Powerpoint. 😉
• But Figma is a professional tool for (UI/UX) designers, with tools for handing off designs to devs and for Management/Other colleagues to comment and follow progress.

The whole UI3 redesign feels like someone decided that the floating bottom bar was the most important thing and everything else would have to adjust to that. But FigJam (still) has a top bar with the filename, the F menu, etc.

I had to switch back to UI2 because I have deliverables to hand over, with a deadline, and I was hunting for basic features.

This is 100% the way.

People don’t like change, especially when it comes to workflow and UI. People also don’t forget.

Hi mates! I unexpectedly got access to the beta version of the new UI Figma. After using it for several days in a row I want to share my thoughts on why it sucks.

First, let’s take a look at it.

The most obvious changes:
1. Side panels have been redesigned. They no longer stick to the edges of the screen.
2. The top control panel has been partially moved down.
3. The design system has been updated.

I want to start with the main feeling of it before focusing on the details. I lost the sense that Figma is a program for designers. The lightness inherent in the words “design”, and “art” has gone somewhere. The feeling that anyone can learn this program easily has gone away.

Now it looks like a program for engineers and developers. Boring, heavy, tedious, and uninteresting. All these new endless strokes and contrasting backgrounds on inputs are similar to the well-known services for assembling business card sites, after which returning to Figma, for me personally, was a breath of fresh air. Because Figma is a creative environment, not an engineering one.

What bad exactly in the last changes?

1. Side panels have been redesigned. They no longer stick to the edges of the screen.

Due to this, focus on the work area was lost. There is no feeling of immersion in the project. The project you are doing is the main thing, and the side panels are secondary. Now they are perceived as part of my project. This feeling is especially enhanced when working with a dark theme.

2. The top control panel has been partially moved down.

This is a total shock. For two reasons.

The first reason is that:
All design books and design classics teach us designers that the human eye reads information from left to right (in Western culture), from top to bottom. Now Figma has decided that the key actions should be at the bottom…

Yes, I rarely press these buttons because I use hotkeys. But I see a lot of beginners and people who are not professional designers clicking there to create a rectangle.

In the previous UI, all available actions are in one place, on one line at the top. If you need something, you know where to look for it. Everything is conveniently organized. In the new UI, everything is scattered across different parts of the screen: Creating objects from below, there are also plugins (there is a separate topic about the panel with them), and the dev mod. But share the project, previews, and active users are at the top, and on the panel, which is dedicated to managing the selected object.

The second reason is not less trash, but probably even greater.
Now the available actions with selected objects are located not at the top in the center with large icons, but in the panel on the right, in the second row, with micro-icons of size 24. This was almost the key feature that helped newcomers adapt to Figma. No wonder it was located at the top and center.

It’s so cool when you select an object and see how the list of available basic actions with it changes! In the center, large. There was nothing like this anywhere except Figma. Now this won’t happen in Figma either, because it doesn’t work well with the fancy menu at the bottom.

Hmmm, what to choose a convenient functionality or a fashionable menu to collect likes for Behance?? The question is rhetorical. The answer is clear.

Other points:

Plugins.

Am I the only one who uses them all the time? Why do you need to make a lot of clicks every time to launch something? But the useless console, which I use at most once every 3 days, opens with one click. Yes, of course, there will be AI, but it doesn’t have to be placed specifically in the console, right? 🙂

Assets.

As before, assets from the library can be added from two places. Let’s finally decide on one. I vote for the sidebar. (Assets panel 2 on picture)

List of pages.

In the new design system, the section heading and the active element are on the same level and written in the same font. Which makes it hard to see what page I’m on. Even if this happens for a split second in my head, it doesn’t happen in the old UI.

Sorry for the Figma team 🙃

I also find it a little more difficult to eye-scan the properties panel, not only due to the reorganization of options but also because of the input backgrounds and additional outlines around elements. However, I believe this perception may vary from person to person.

It’s really terrible. I’ve been using Figma for 5 year straight and they somehow managed to ruin Figma simplicity.

I agree. It’s awfull