Subject: Serious UX Regression and Visual Defects in Projects Sidebar Redesign
Hello,
I am a paid user who relies heavily on ChatGPT Projects for daily work, research, accounting, and long-term project organization. The recent Projects sidebar redesign has significantly reduced usability and resulted in substantial lost productivity.
I spent over an hour troubleshooting what appeared to be broken or missing functionality because these changes were introduced without any explanation, onboarding, release notes, or visual guidance. I genuinely believed the Projects feature was malfunctioning and that I had lost access to my project files and workspace.
Please pass this feedback to the Product and UI/UX teams.
- Project Names No Longer Open Projects
Historically, clicking a Project opened the Project workspace, providing direct access to files, project instructions, settings, and chats.
The new behavior appears to use the Project name only as an expand/collapse control for the chat list.
This breaks a fundamental user expectation. A Project is a destination, not merely a folder disclosure control.
Current workflow:
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Click Project → Expand chat list
-
Open a chat
-
Find hidden navigation elsewhere
-
Navigate back to Project workspace
Previous workflow:
- Click Project → Open Project
The previous workflow was significantly faster, more intuitive, and required fewer clicks.
- Critical Discoverability Problem
There is no obvious way to open a Project workspace directly from the sidebar.
After extensive troubleshooting, I discovered that the small “New Chat” icon next to the Project name can be used to access the Project. However, creating or initiating a new chat should not be required to access Project files, instructions, settings, or other Project resources.
Users should not have to reverse-engineer the interface to locate basic functionality.
- Visual Defect: New Chat Icon Overlaps Project Name
The New Chat icon is the same color as the Project title text and is positioned directly beside long Project names.
On longer Project names, the icon visually blends into or overlaps the text, making it appear invisible.
I only discovered the icon existed after scrolling to a Project with a much shorter name.
This is a serious discoverability and accessibility issue that directly contributed to the confusion described above.
- Project Navigation Is Hidden Inside Chats
Project-related navigation now appears to be accessible primarily from within individual Project chats.
This reverses the natural hierarchy of:
Project → Files → Chats
and instead forces users into:
Chat → Project → Files
For users who organize their work around Projects, this creates unnecessary friction and confusion.
- Loss of Productivity and User Confidence
The redesign made it appear that core Project functionality had been removed or broken.
I spent significant time searching documentation, community discussions, and troubleshooting the interface before discovering how to access my Projects again.
A redesign should not make experienced users question whether their data, files, or workflows are still accessible.
Requested Changes
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Restore the ability to open a Project workspace by clicking the Project name.
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Add a dedicated “Open Project” action in the Project menu.
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Separate expand/collapse behavior from open-project behavior.
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Fix the New Chat icon overlap and visibility issues.
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Improve discoverability of Project files, instructions, and settings.
-
Provide release notes, onboarding, or in-product guidance when major workflow changes are introduced.
Projects are one of the most valuable features in ChatGPT. This redesign has made them significantly harder to navigate and use efficiently. I strongly encourage the team to reconsider these navigation changes or provide users with an option to restore the previous behavior.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
P.S. I really hate this update.