The people who repeatedly overhauled Yahoo Mail the last two or three years (until they got it right!) should be put in charge of all UI decisions. Even Outlook.com barely competes with the cleanliness and layout of Yahoo Mail. Even Contacts and Calendar tabs are both easier to navigate to, read, and understand than Google as well.
Too bad my Y! mail account is the one I used to sign up for stuff that would get me spammed…