The panel to the left is easily customizable primairly through CSS with minor javascript. It is very simple to adjust which side of the document (right, top and bottom) the panel appears.
There is a delay at the beginning of the page load where the panel is visible to the user, which is purposely done to give the user a visual cue/hint the panel is there and now it is slightly hidden. However, if you would like to remove the delay, you will need to remove some javascript and adjust the CSS accordingly.