How to Improve the New Design (New Experience): Part One

Recently Wrike redesigned their UI and UX,

Some parts are definitely prettier, but the usability (IMHO) is worse.

I'm writing this because I got off an interview with the Wrike team, and one of the designers was trying to sell me on "Why the new redesign is better", which it's not currently, and I don't want a great product to become bad and have to move to one of their competitors (like ClickUp for example).

I'm writing this both for the current users of Wrike and their Design Team

I'll ask some questions on the way down for anyone who ends up reading this to answer, so be prepared to give Wrike some product feedback :) 

Now, here's why I think it's worse and how I think can be improved:

First thing to note, this is what the old and new design look like right next to each other:

Old Design

New Design

Not so different right?

Question 1: At first glance, which one do you think is better?

Let me show you what I immediately noticed about the redesign:

1. They hid being able to view all of the different views / spaces in one screen (which with good folder structure is almost never a problem). 
2. They added A 2nd, not needed space title (it used to be self-descriptive which folders you were in because IT EASILY SHOWED THE SPACES WITHOUT INTERUPTING THE WORKFLOW)
3. They move the action button from the Left side (you know, where most of the work gets done and created) conveniently next to the Account & Help where the mouse doesn't really go except for account stuff and occasionally searching)
4. Where did the most useful part of Wrike (the "My Work" section) go.

Let's see how the old design did these things:

Let's point out some wins about the old version:

1. You can see EVERY relevant space on the left side of the screen, AND EASILY SWITCH BETWEEN THEM. You can go as complex or simple of a view as you need, and it's on a person to person basis.
2. There's no question where to make a new task / space / folder / project. Eventually you're going to click the plus button. That's just going to happen. Plus = Create, bright green + = I want to make one of the things I need to make.
3. The important My Todo section is available right next to the green plus (also is available in the Personal space folder). This is key because no matter what folders your in, you can click the "My to-do" and clearly see the tasks that are RELEVANT TO YOU (assigned to you). You can always access your Wrike "safe space".
4. There's a hamburger menu to close the left folders in case you want to focus.

Question 2: Which version (new or old) do you think is more intuitive? 

Question 3: Do you think Wrike really needed a "Redesign" or just better features? 

Part 1 Conclusion: 

I'm not done, but there's a lot to type here lol. 

My answer to Q3: Personally, I don't think Wrike needed a redesign, because a lot of the filtering options and permissions allows people to clear up excessive folders & spaces themselves. But there are plenty of features to add (Like Kanban view containing projects AND tasks, instead of only tasks and not projects)

Since the Wrike team made it very clear on our interview that the new design will eventually be implemented on everyones device (whether we like it or not), the only thing to do would be to improve the new design.

So, for the designers:

1. Please (at a minimum) add the easy navigation where the My to-do section is on top.
2. Put the Plus Icon back on the left side
3. Either get rid of the second title that's connected to nothing (right next to the Email icon) or make it useful (like a dropdown list of the spaces), after adding back the My to-do section of course.

What I didn't cover:

1. The new home section
2. The replacement for the My to-do and other section navigation (the dots icon on the right that complicates things further)
3. How to actually navigate spaces now (it's not intuitive, and is quite painful to use, just like the dots and home menus).

Last Question (Question 4) for Part 1: To the people who use Wrike daily, what do you agree or disagree with about this post?