Don't alarm your users

7 Oct 2016

As of El Capitan Version 10.11.6, if you go to iCloud and click on “Sign Out” the following alert will open:

I have some problems with this alert:

It almost feels like this wording was chosen to discourage users from signing out of iCloud. And that is not cool. Out of the two buttons, I feel much safer click on “Cancel”.

So I reckon the whole thing should just say:

Nicer right? I would much prefer to see this. I have the peace of mind knowing that I can access my documents again at any time.

It’s obvious Apple has a vested interest in having more iCloud users ( 🤑) but I’m not interested in that.

For what it’s worth, I like using iCloud for Notes. It’s great. But this alert makes me sad.

TL;DR: Don’t scare or bully your users into taking certain actions. Help them accomplish what they set out to do.