Menu engineering: paradox of choice
The serial position of menu items are based on psychology and cognitive science – these are referred to as the rules of recency and primacy and the Von Restorff effect – isolation effect).
The serial position effect refers to a person’s ability to more accurately recall the first (primary) and last (most recent) items of a list than to recall any other item on that list. Similarly, the Von Restorff effect refers to a person’s ability to more accurately recall distinctive items from a list.
The most desirable locations on the menu would lie at positions 1 (primacy), 7 (recency), and perhaps position 5 (where the gaze pattern would pass through most frequently).
