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kukapishixdd
July 3, 2024

Allow us to dock/move the new UI3 toolbar

  • July 3, 2024
  • 188 replies
  • 9344 views

ngl, the new ui3 is pretty good. the only thing i dont like is the toolbar position. im still not used to it. maybe add an option to move it to the top?

188 replies

Dominic2
New Member
April 15, 2025

@figma
Today I tried UI3 again after many months, hoping that this glaring issue (see all the feedback) was resolved but nope, the floating bar is still there.
You fixed the other floating panels, how long does it take to release a fix for the action bar?

  • let users decide whether to have it at the bottom or at the top
  • give an option to always hide it (power users use shortcuts, they don’t use the action bar)

For now it’s back to the previous UI for me, once more.

Stubborn. Let’s face it, if they put the toolbar back to the top, they might as well use that space for component sets too, which was quite handy. Then one has to ask, what was the point in changing it at all 🤷🏼‍♂️

Craig12
New Participant
April 16, 2025

It will be really nice feature, and easier transition to the new UI3 layout. Now the tool bar really close to the mac dock, and I need to precisely move the cursor just to pick the right tool, and not the mac icon.

 

Assuming that a great many designers are using macs, this update is certainly a slap in the face for those users and certainly a conscious decision that the opinions of these (core, vocal) users are of minimal importance to where Figma want to be. 

Zarni
New Member
April 16, 2025

finally starting to use UI3 since we are being forced to do so on the 30th… :( the worst part of UI3 is this bottom toolbar.. most of the time on a duel screen setup my laptop monitor covers this bottom part where i dont even see the toolbar when placed on the bottom… please allow use to configure position or just move it up to its original position where its actaully more usable. 

Katy_Towell
New Member
April 23, 2025

The UI3 floating bar makes no sense at the bottom considering every other tool is near the top. The way it floats over our actual work makes it actively in the way now. I don’t think this is a case of users just needing to get used to it. It’s a legitimate inconvenience, and not even including an option to move it is frustrating, especially now that we won’t be able to roll back to a previous version of Figma.  

Jon Towers
New Participant
April 23, 2025

Moving and forcing the tool bar to the bottom of the screen is infuriating and for me makes no sense in terms of usability. 

When you have multiple files open in tabs in UI 2 all your tabs and then tools are all contained together at the top of the screen. Now you have split that relationship which means your focus and eye have to continually switch between the top and bottom of the canvas. 

I can’t believe we can’t customise this to be at the top OR stay in UI2 which is a much more effective UI layout. Why are you doing this?

Jennifer_Treter
New Member
April 24, 2025

I emailed this in as an accessibility issue. With my set up, having it at the bottom significantly slows down my work flow due to my screen size. My mouse is almost never at the bottom of my screen unless I need to sleep my computer or adjust the bottom right settings, which are not part of my Figma workflow. And I was told “Your suggestion has been forwarded to our product development team for review. While we can't guarantee implementation...”

Here is your own vision statement on your front page, Figma, (https://www.figma.com/about/)

“Our vision is to make design accessible to everyone.”

Everyone includes me. I am a person, and so are all of these people commenting. You have made no indication that there is an option to move the toolbar to the top at this April 30th forced update, even though this issue has been brought up to you for nine months.

 

“The best way is to design together.” (https://www.figma.com/about/)
 

I agree. I am a User Experience and User Interface designer. The best designs, the best teams, they see and include everyone, because everyone has something to bring to the table. By your own interface design, you are excluding me and many other people, people with comments on here and who haven’t commented at all, so many other threads merged into this one, making our experience harder with no option to accommodate our needs that are not addressed with such a wide, spread out, non-customizable interface.

Here’s the other thing. People have already fixed your problem with a bit of code. A bit of code is all it takes to move the toolbar up to the top of the screen and help me and these other people who are asking for your help to give them an accessible experience. Better than just moving it, make it an option. Add a menu option to “View.” “Toolbar at Bottom” “Toolbar at Top.” You can keep the ability to have that toolbar at the bottom. Just make an option to allow it to be at the top as well.

If you truly

“...look forward to a future where design is even more: collaborative, borderless, transparent, community-driven, open-sourced…,” (https://www.figma.com/about/)

then don’t ignore your community and exclude groups of users by their needs.

By the looks of the comments, many people do not feel reassured. This issue has no demonstrated evidence that it’s being taken seriously, or addressed in a respectful and timely manner. It’s not transparent how any of our concerns will actually be taken care of before April 30th. 

This is incredibly disappointing to watch Figma, one of the biggest UI design softwares, ignore and refuse to act on accessibility issues brought up by its own user base. The web needs to be more accessible, how does it look for a such a major design software to be less accessible and accommodating? 

Felice Croul
New Member
April 24, 2025

Please let us move the tool bar from the bottom. It gets in the way of my work and it’s really annoying. I see that people have been asking this for 9 months and Figma has not been responsive to this. Please listen to what your users are asking for. Most applications allow us to move these tool and palettes.

 

guuu
New Member
April 24, 2025

Yeah it’s really not ideal. The design/usability intent isn’t really clear to me—as to why it needs to be floating at all. But if it must be structured this way, it really should be possible to set the element to vertical orientation, preferably allowing it to be docked or embedded at the top as it was before also.

Felice Croul
New Member
April 24, 2025

What I don’t understand is why after 9 mos of complaints they haven’t done anything. Also, hiding tools/design options on the right so you have to click to see it every time you want to use it isn’t helpful at all. I really wonder how this was tested before thy rolled it out. So tired of applications making changes for the sake of change rather than testing to see if it really improves the user experience.

Hazy
New Member
April 30, 2025

Just adding my voice to all the others saying this ‘floating’ tool bar is an annoyance. Everything I could say about it has already been said, but thought I would chime in anyway….