# Serial Position Effect

Users have a propensity to best remember the first and last items in a series.

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.

  Source

### Further Reading

###
    Serial Position Effect: How to Create Better User Interfaces

  Euphemia Wong | Interaction Design Foundation

###
    The Serial Position Effect: Why ABC and XYZ Stand Out the Most Among All the Alphabets

  Abhishek Chakraborty | Medium.com

###
    Psychology in Design (Part 1)

  Andri Budzinskiy | Medium.com

###
    Serial Position Effect on Wikipedia

  Wikipedia

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Source: https://lawsofux.com/serial-position-effect/
Category: Theory
Tags: cognitive bias, memory