Users have a propensity to best remember the first and last items in a series.
Takeaways
- Placing the least important items in the middle of lists can be helpful because these items tend to be stored less frequently in long-term and working memory.
- Positioning key actions on the far left and right within elements such as navigation can increase memorization.
Origins
The serial position effect, a term coined by Herman Ebbinghaus, describes how the position of an item in a sequence affects recall accuracy. The two concepts involved, the primacy effect and the recency effect, explains how items presented at the beginning of a sequence and the end of a sequence are recalled with greater accuracy than items in the middle of a list. Manipulation of the serial position effect to create better user experiences is reflected in many popular designs by successful companies like Apple, Electronic Arts, and Nike.