Hi Jason. thanks for replying. I was genuinely curious as to your opinion on the gmail UI since you are more experienced than me. I don't have much issue with

Hi Jason. thanks for replying. I was genuinely curious as to your opinion on the gmail UI since you are more experienced than me. I don't have much issue with the spacing in compose. I have an issue with hiding the formatting and functionality of the email. I was not suggesting ignoring personal use cases. Given the popularity of Gmail, a lot of people uses email to do work for personal use. However, SMS/whatsapp/fb chat is a much more effective medium for personal use cases. Picking up the phone to reply a text feels a lot more personal and less intimidating than email. The new redesign does not make it less intimidating to use email. I agree that Gmail should "influence" users on their behaviors by changing the UI to some extent. However, you should facilitate the user's existing use cases. Most people would prefer to send an SMS for personal messages and send email for work. Forcing email to look more minimalistic like an SMS by removing formatting / forward button is not user friendly. Another example is the pop in compose button. I like to see other emails before I compose - naturally, you would think i would love the new pop in since I can see emails as I compose. However, I am used to having one tab open for composing and another for reading emails. Out of curiosity: How do you determine whether a redesign is successful or not? Are there particular metrics you pay attention to?