Removing floating panels after we’ve gotten used to them is quite disappointing, especially since we can’t get them back. It would be great to implement an option in theme preferences to enable them again. Some users ‘didn’t like’ them, but there are others who did.

Having that as a customisation option would seem like the developers and designers at Figma are undecided. I think they’ve decided now that this UI provides a better user experience.

I am a Japanese Figma user.

Today, the design of the left and right panels of Figma (UI 3) was changed. Is it possible to revert this to the previous design?

This design is not cool. However, having a ruler on the right side of the left panel is functional. I think it would be good if users could choose which design to use.

Figma should consider adding an option to turn floating panels on and off. It’s not ideal to simply revert the UI changes and potentially frustrate the other half of the user base.

The design team invested over a year in creating this new UI, and giving users the choice to enable or disable floating panels seems like a reasonable request that respects their efforts and user preferences alike.

Bring back my floating panels, pls! I loved them very much <3

I was quite undecided about floating panels. At first I liked them, I liked the whole idea behind it. Then I had a few quibbles with it, like rulers showing up behind the panels. I thought that docking panels made sense in the end.

But now that I had some time with both, I gotta say I prefer the floating panels a lot more. These docked panels somehow feel claustrophobic. Like, now I get a tiny little window through the UI so I can look at my designs. With floating panels they were, well floating on top of my design. It really did feel like I had more real estate, even if it was imaginary.

Make America floating again! ah… I mean panels 😀

I’d like to see an option, also resizing and moving them; including where to dock them if you want them docked would be great.

Hey @Masa1, thanks for reaching out!

Try using the shortcut: Shift + \

please bring it back

Thank you for your reply.

Isn’t that the shortcut for “Show/Hide Pixel Grid”?

What I want to know is how to change the design of the left and right panels (see the image above).

If you know, please let me know.

If you are on Mac, may you can try this ⇧ + \

Thank you for your advice.

I tried it on Mac and Windows.

On a Japanese Mac, pressing Shift + Backslash is the shortcut for “Show pixel preview”.

When I tried the same operation on a Japanese Windows, it became “Minimize UI”.

So I went back to my Mac and checked the shortcut for “Minimize UI”, and it was Shift + Command + @.

Because I’m on a Japanese Mac, my reply to your advice was a little confusing.

I’m very sorry.

Now, back to my original question.

My question is not about “Minimize UI”.

This Tuesday, the design of the left and right panels of Figma UI3 was changed.

(Please see the screenshot I attached in my first post)

My question is,

“Is it possible to go back to the UI3 panels before the design change?”

Maybe I’m the only one experiencing the new panel design?

If so, I think it’s a confusing question.

Hey @Masa1, thanks for clarifying!

The UI3 team confirmed that the ⇧ + \ shortcut is actually a feature to minimize UI where the property panel still floats, but to be transparent, this is not an option to bring back floating panels.

Due to the overwhelming amount of negative feedback regarding the floating panels, we won’t be bringing the floating panels back to UI3.

I’ll update your topic into the feature request though to give the community the opportunity to vote for a shortcut to bring back the floating panels as an option in the future.

More info on why we ultimately decided to move away from the floating panels here:

Hello dvaliao-san

Thank you for your detailed explanation and support!

Japanese users are also looking forward to the further development of Figma.

Actually this might be the best way to go about it! Make them shorter, narrower, dock them, float them, move them around, move them to an external monitor. Everyone gets exactly what they want.

The UI3 refresh felt so modern and fresh because of the floating panels. I work on a 27" screen, I liked them a lot 😦

this is a really bad thing btw 😬

i really liked the floating panels and having them gone now with the option to “bring them back” being insanely half baked really sucks

Ideally this is how shift + / should have been but everybody who likes the floating panels seems to have just been screwed out of them sadly. I’m going to guess the removal was fueled by people not liking change but that’s up to speculation.

Personally, I really liked them and really would like them back. Logged back into this forum just to upvote all of the threads asking for them back.

Thanks for the feedback, @pyxfluff!

I’ll pass this onto the UI3 team for future consideration. Don’t forget to vote up top! ☝️

Our teams use votes from the community to gauge overall interest and prioritize.

This is not the same as the standard float, just hides the bars…

what we want is a toggle to turn on and off the floating sidebars if we want always

This is extremely disappointing news. I really think you all are siding with the vocal minority here.

I hope you plan to keep the option to keep only one of the panels open. I noticed that after the fixed-panel update, mine turn into floating panels when I hide them and then the design panel shows up when needed. I would HATE to lose this feature. I’ve been utilizing more split-screen work since gaining the extra space from hiding only one panel. It’s going to be frustrating going back to fixed panels.

As I mentioned above, the UI3 team clarified that the ⇧ + \ shortcut is actually a feature to minimize UI where the property panel still floats, but to be transparent, it is not an option to bring back floating panels.

We hear you, @Lauren_Medved.

The UI3 team took into the account the negative feedback in both of these topics:

Rest-assured that the UI3 team also has eyes on this feature request, so if there’s enough interest, there’s still how to bring back an options and/or shortcuts.

I understood and just wanted to add up my comment to many other designers that are frustrated with this change.

Also on top of this - The sudden turning back from Figma on this shows such a inconsistency of ui when you use that command. Since now the standard is fixed and when you press shift + \ not only you minimise the ui but you also show again the floating style…

This going back change was so rushed that don’t even seem something Figma usually would do. That is way my surprise as well.

We hear you, @Ricardo_Seixas.

Here’s more info directly from the UI3 team in regards to why they decided to remove floating panels: