Hot Take: Why I Hate the New Canva Update

And How I Turned It Off

At the annual Canva Create event this past May, Canva unveiled a major redesign, presenting it as “Canva: For Work.” I discovered this as I traversed my For You Page on TikTok. I saw a video from another graphic designer who said that Canva’s new features were only available to a select few who knew a secret backdoor entrance to the software. (You can learn about their nifty secret entrance and get a bite-sized version of this blog in visual form by checking out my TikTok video on the topic.) 

Canva’s Redesign: Great in Theory. Terrible in Practice.

I was super excited about the update. I use Canva every day for work, so to hear that they were doing a redesign geared for people using it professionally really got my hopes up! As a tried-and-true Canva lover, my only critique of the platform has been that sometimes the software leans toward being rudimentary. I find there’s not enough customization, and I can’t do as much with it compared to Adobe products and some other design software programs. 

But hey, that’s kind of their shtick, right? Canva’s simplicity stands as one of its biggest strengths. It is known for being user-friendly and easy to operate.

Or rather, it was.

The second I switched over to the new user interface I hated it. It wasn’t that there was a learning curve. I’m not some hardened and unmalleable designer who never wants anything to change and cannot adapt to buttons being in different places. The problem is the updated interface is blatantly less efficient. 

Gripe #1 – Color Me Frustrated

My first issue is with how they changed the process for accessing brand colors. I have upwards of 15 saved color palettes for individual clients. In Canva’s attempt to refresh the perfectly fine former interface, they now only give you access to the first row of saved palettes when you click on the tab where you have your colors. Only after you click a second time can you see a side tab with your other saved palettes. In this same vein, Canva’s “change all” color feature is now hidden in an extra tab that you can’t keep open while you’re designing. The second you move your cursor, it disappears into thin air.

Gripe #2 – Why Fix What Ain’t Broken?

In Canva Create, they explain the automatic opening and closing of tabs as an efficiency and space-saving feature, citing “more room for designing.” But technically we had that feature with the old interface — we could easily open and close tabs with one click. 

We had control with the old interface as opposed to now with the new features doing things automatically. I don’t know if you’ve ever worked really tediously on a design, but if things on the screen start moving on their own, it’s disorienting and disrupts workflow.

Problem #3 – Case Closed: The New Open Design Is Cumbersome and Counterproductive

My final grievance (there are more, but this is the last one I’ll speak of in this blog post) is the new open design interface. In the old Canva, you’d launch the site, click your design, and it would launch a new tab with your design open in the editor. This was useful, especially when working with a large number of designs because you could quickly reaccess the homepage with all of your designs and templates. 

Now, in true Canva: Redesigned fashion, the interface requires you to make extra clicks. You have to click your design, and then click a second time on an element of the design to access any of the editing features — even though at first glance it seems that the editor is open. This was driving me insane. I thought my editor was open, but when I’d click on a page of a design and try to duplicate the page by hitting Command-D, the tab would bookmark instead! 

Out With the New In With the Old

It was those tiny “enhancements” that slowly coagulated into a chaotic and unrecognizable Canva. But the universe works in mysterious ways. As I was getting fed up with giving mastery of the new interface the old college try, I stumbled onto a way to turn the new features off and return to the beloved old editor. Here’s how I did it.

1. On the homescreen, navigate to the top right corner and click on your profile icon.
2. Click Settings from the dropdown menu.
3. Scroll to the bottom of your settings and toggle “The Glow Up” option to the off position to deactivate the new features and resume using the old editor. 
4. Optional: Tell Canva how you feel! There is a spot to provide feedback without turning the features off. Or if you do turn them off, you will be prompted to write why you decided to do so.

You can also learn this process by watching my step-by-step tutorial on TikTok. 

Are you frustrated with the Canva redesign? What have you found most annoying and unproductive about it? I’d love to hear your thoughts!