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In the previous version the logout button is under your username, which it can be found by clicking the down arrow. However, in the new version, after a couple minutes of searching, it is under the "site-switcher" button:
This is really illogical since the logout button is usually under your username, including Google and Yahoo! services.
I suggest bringing back the user menu which will definitely benefit new users and even old users.
I agree that the placement is odd. I saw the title of your question and searched around for the logout button myself before I read the question body -- I didn't find it.
After reading your question and tracking it down, I still don't like it. We have a link to the blog, a link to chat... navigation items, then we have a user account state control? It seems like it is located there for lack of a better place to put it, rather than it making sense in context.
I don't think the user menu is necessary, though; it duplicates features that are located under other menu items. I like the new top bar, other than this one weird thing. I think simply moving the "log out" link to the bar, next to the user image, would be just fine. This groups user account-related navigation together, and there's plenty of room for it!
I've been looking around, trying to find some data, in general, on the frequency of users taking the time to log out when using a website. I am not finding much in the way of hard data, but a few things emerge:
the log out button is (almost) universally located in the immediate vicinity of the part of the interface which indicates the current user and provides access to account management (privacy, settings, etc)
security professionals broadly encourage users to log out (though fail to provide very solid reasoning)
some top web properties treat logging out as a primary action
A round-up of some top web properties shows the proximity of user account controls and the log out button:
Suggest making the user-image-and-rep button a dropdown with two selections...
Standard Location
Logout being the last item in a dropdown menu under the logged in user's name is an almost ubiquitous practice.
User Interface Intuitiveness
Sir Issac Newton's third law of motion tells us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This expectation of symmetry forms the basis of much of the "intuitiveness" in a good user interface design. For example:
Login without logout is like entering a room through a door that can only be opened from the outside. Once through, you're trapped. The new placement of the logout button is like having a secret, hidden latch on the inside that you must find to escape the room. While this analogy may seem extreme, it describes that feeling of apprehension users get when they've initiated an action and it is not obvious how to gracefully exit it.
Security and Reliability
Logging out may not be a reliable security measure, but it does significantly improve system reliability on both ends by cleanly releasing resources and discarding associations.
Clearing Credentials
Logging out with the button under the StackExchange dropdown often hangs on the Clear Credentials page without presenting its Logout button. The functionality of a one-click log out of all SE sites is vital for daily usability since most people frequent several sites.
Here is a possible solution that may be a good compromise between the new and old. It would consist of using a "x" icon to the left of the users icon - only when it is highlighted or "hovering".
The x would log you out, and the rest of the user link would work as it does currently.
Normal:
On Hover:
Closer look:
This would:
As a side note, it would also be possible to show it in both states if functionality for "touch" would be an issue:
While I agree that the placement of the logout link is a little odd, I can't agree that bringing back the user menu is the best solution.
Let me walk you through how we came get rid of the user menu, by examining the items found in that menu:
"activity" link: Specific to you, linked to a tab on your profile page that contains answers you've accepted; questions, answers, and comments you've posted; badges you've earned; edits and reviews you've completed; and edits you've suggested. Of these, the only item that is something that happened to you (as opposed to something you did) is badges earned. We felt that these deserved better visibility and are now in the "achievements" dropdown (along with rep changes and privileges earned). Everything else is just reference; since your whole user card in the top bar links to your profile, you can still access the other information, though it's an extra click away.
"privileges" link: NOT specific to you; a standard reference page that lists all of the privileges for the site you're on. The primary interesting thing about privileges is earning them, which you are notified of through the achievements dropdown. Few people need or want to reference a privilege they don't have yet, so this link went away.
UTC time: NOT specific to you. This mostly matters with respect to the rep cap and to earning badges, so we moved it to the achievements dropdown, where you can view it in the context of those two things.
reputation earned, and recent badges earned: A primary point of interest for most users; we made it more obvious by giving you realtime notifications and a top-level indicator that's not cluttered up with a lot of other notifications (like in the old "notifications" tab of the multicollider).
votes cast, revisions, and changes to favorite questions: Items that are kind of useful, but mostly interesting to a small percentage of power users. (Most users don't run into the daily voting limit, or make many revisions, or have many favorites.) Since they're rarely used, we removed them from the top bar; you can still get to them on your profile.
log out: A user activity. It does make sense to have this near a username/avatar like many other sites have. HOWEVER....
We're at the end of the list of items in the user menu, and the only things that are really justifiable to have there are a link to the profile and the logout link. We know that users want to visit their profile far more often than they want to log out, so making the avatar a dropdown with "profile" and "logout" links is a net loss; it adds an extra click for a very frequently used action. I don't have numbers offhand, but the vast majority of our users only rarely log out of our sites. Obviously, we aren't going to take away the functionality entirely, but I can't come up with a compelling argument to give top bar real estate to an action that's rarely used, or to create a new dropdown that yes, provides a more logical location for the logout action, but which also makes the more common action more difficult.
The placement is a little illogical at first, but it's not impossible to find, and once you find it, you know where to find it in the future. I was worried that it would be a huge pain point for our users, but we haven't seen a significant uptick in support requests on this issue, which leads me to conclude that users either aren't interested in logging out, or they are finding the link just fine on their own.
If you have a better suggestion for where to put the log out link, please post it; I'm afraid I'm not convinced that anything posted here so far is a better alternative, though.
