The new Gmail design is just terrible. I hate to be one of those guys who complains about a free thing, but seriously, I found myself trying to get some work done last night and I found the new design getting in my way.

I’m not sure if this is just because it was the first time I’ve been in there really doing work, or if it was because it’s really that bad, but I have a couple reasons I think it’s the later as well as the former.

But lets get past the little things that bug us about the redesign. The new design is fantastic for reading email– especially long conversational chains of email from an archive. Go take a look at it. Seriously, I’ll wait for you while you bring up one of those epic threads from your archive and take a look.

See? It would almost seem that the Gmail redesign was made almost exclusively for this purpose. It’s like scrolling back through an old Facebook messages thread.

This is, however, where it breaks down, right? E-mail is not a fleeting, instant gratification-based, social process – that’s what messages, texts, tweets, comments and status updates are for. This is even more obvious when you consider at the usage patterns of real people (i.e. not you who is reading this post). Email is where people go to do– ugh –work.

The new Gmail feels like it’s trying to break – or at least shift – that paradigm. And this is where Google keeps ‘stumbling’ with the Gmail service. They keep trying to make email not be about work, but about everything.

But is it really the wrong move?

Back when I was a tech writer, one conversation I had really stuck with me. One of the firm’s most talented software engineers who was showing me a new feature he wanted documented for the CAD/CAM product we produced. It was a neat feature– one of those really clever little bits of polish that could, if explained and adopted the right way– could really speed up a persons workflow. (In CAM, it’s all about the workflow).

And as John finished stepping me through the code, I stopped him cold with a single question:

“Johnny,” I asked, “Tell me who would want to use this feature.”

His eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped. Then he cocked his head and raised his eyebrows in thought.

Turning back to me, he said, with complete sincerity, “Everybody.”

“No,” I stammered. Now it was my turn to be flummoxed. “No, I mean, who is the kind of person who would see how valuable this feature is… you know… in their day-to_day job.”

“The kind of person,” John shot back, “who wants to get more work done more quickly.”

That, I think, summarizes the problem with software, engineers, communication, the new Gmail design, and life in general. The fundamental roadblock to bettering ones workflow is that one has to be willing to accept that there might be a better way to flow one’s work than the way one is already doing it.

Google wants you to accept there is a better way to use your email. You don’t have to silo off parts of your life into and out of Gmail. Everything can just happen in your inbox. Everything.

Its what they tried to do with Buzz, it’s what they’re trying to do with G+, it’s what Facebook is already doing with regular people.

So are you ready to accept this? Or, has Facebook already won, and should G-mail stop trying to be Facebook and be something better? Or, might there be a better way that you could be living your life?

I don’t have the answers. I’m just a guy who thinks too much about the secret and subtle subtexts behind seemingly minor cosmetic changes to a service that I really, really like.

Evaluating the paradigm shift between the lines at Google’s flagship services requires that I also evaluate myself. When I look at beyond “is it pretty?” which is certainly a matter of taste and not function, I’m not sure that I do dislike the new Google, but I’m equally as uncertain about wanting the new Google to be my email platform of choice anymore.

The question really being asked here: Can I accept having an email inbox where work, life, social, and other stuff is all commingled?

The answer isn’t so easy. Fortunately, getting my mail out of Google isn’t so hard, but ultimately, if the answer is “No, I cannot accept what Google is trying to do” then rolling my own IMAP server somewhere is going to take a lot more work than I’m probably willing to put into email.

And so I probably won’t change. And neither will you.

This, friends, is the price you pay for being the product.