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Inside the Redesigned Figma, Where Your Work Takes Center Stage | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

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UI3 is Figma’s third major redesign, created to manage the complexity accumulated over nearly a decade of new features. Its central goal is to put users’ work—not the interface—at the center while preserving professional workflows and making Figma more approachable. The redesign also establishes a flexible foundation for products such as Dev Mode, Figma AI, and Figma Slides.

Why Figma redesigned the interface

  • Center users’ ideas: New capabilities such as interactive components and AI risked making the interface feel crowded or distracting.
  • Serve both beginners and experts: Figma aimed to become more intuitive for newcomers without removing the power and familiar ergonomics professional designers rely on.
  • Adapt to modern design practices: Reusable components, generative AI, and higher-level abstractions require tools that provide building blocks rather than focusing only on individual pixels.
  • Prepare for the future: UI3 supports Figma’s broader ecosystem, including closer connections between design and code, Dev Mode, Figma AI, and the newly introduced Figma Slides.

Clearing the stage for the canvas

  • The redesign began by maximizing canvas space and reducing visual distractions.
  • Figma experimented with extreme concepts, including interfaces that appeared only on hover and layouts where panels constantly appeared and disappeared.
  • These approaches made the workspace feel unstable, so the team moved toward a more consistent solution:
    • Resizable and collapsible panels
    • A slim toolbar positioned at the bottom of the canvas
    • The ability to hide the interface completely and reveal panels when needed
  • The new structure creates a roomier workspace and provides a consistent framework for switching between Figma products.

Iterative design process

  • Figma explored hundreds of interface variations.
  • Designers built and used many prototypes internally to evaluate how each approach affected real workflows.
  • Features and controls were deliberately removed until the team identified what users genuinely missed, then selectively restored them.

UI3’s practical recommendation is to give designers more control over the interface: keep tools accessible, but allow the canvas and the work itself to take priority.