The User Problem
Discussion
This behavior on YouTube.com is surprising to me, because it allows for a user to make one simple misclick and have a notably negative result that requires multiple steps to correct. This has actually gotten me: in a rush I was aiming for the "YouTube Studio" link but accidentally clicked a little too high.
The main problem is that the Sign Out button has no confirmation step, if you click it you are instantly logged out of the site. But even more critically, because YouTube is a Google property, if you click that button you will also be signed out of your entire Google account with no warning! If you want to go to Gmail, or Google Docs, clicking this single button will tragically affect many other sites.
Logging back into Google could be a multi-step affair, or require the user to go through 2-factor processes, all of which could take a notable amount of time or frustration (everyone LOVES to remember passwords). For users that may not understand the corporate ownership and structure, this could lead to genuine confusion when they subsequently visit other Google properties, because there is no indication what the actual impact of that one single click would be.
While signing in and out is most likely not a daily occurrence, many users might not remember their login details making the impact of this instant sign out more frustrating and requiring more work from the user to correct.
As designers, we should not allow users to make "dumb" mistakes that cause frustration, we should guide them and anticipate error states or unintended consequences.
Proposed Solution
