Recently viewed

Problem Context

• The product contains many comparable or revisitable objects such as records, documents, products, cases, media, or projects.
• Users commonly inspect several items before choosing, pausing, resuming, or comparing them.
• Viewing history can reveal user intent, private work, shopping, health, finance, or shared-device activity.

Selection Rules

• Choose recently viewed when the destination set should come from items the current user personally opened, not from editorial curation, hierarchy, popularity, or recommendation models.
• Record only meaningful item views, not every hover, preview, scroll, or page refresh; update an existing item to the top instead of duplicating it.
• Order items most recent first, cap the visible list, and expire entries according to the task's memory window.
• Show enough context to identify the item before navigation, including type, status, location, last-viewed time, thumbnail, or owner when those details prevent mistakes.
• Provide item removal and list clearing when recents are visible outside a private workspace, synced across devices, or likely to reveal sensitive behavior.
• Separate recently viewed from Favorites, saved items, bookmarks, pinned items, related links, and recommendations because those imply different user intent.
• Hide the section when no trustworthy recent items exist instead of filling it with popular or promoted content.
• Handle unavailable, moved, deleted, permission-lost, or out-of-stock items with clear status and recovery rather than dead links.

Required States

• Empty or hidden state before any qualifying item has been viewed.
• Populated state with most-recent-first ordering and recognizable item context.
• Active or just-opened state showing which item was resumed from the list.
• Remove-one state that deletes a single item from recent history without deleting the item itself.
• Clear-all state that empties recent history and explains the effect.
• Unavailable-item state for deleted, moved, permission-lost, or out-of-stock entries.
• Synced or account-scoped state when entries can appear across devices or sessions.

Interaction Contract

• Opening an item from the list navigates to that exact item and moves it to the top of the recent list.
• Viewing the same item again updates its recency instead of creating duplicates.
• Removing a recent entry removes only the history reference, not the underlying item.
• Clearing the list removes visible recent history for the defined scope and leaves saved items or favorites intact.
• The component does not show items viewed by another user unless the account or shared-device scope is explicit.
• The list is omitted when there is no valid recent history or when privacy settings disable history capture.

Implementation Checklist

• Define the qualifying event that writes history, such as opening a detail page for a minimum time or completing a load.
• Store a stable item ID with display metadata that can be refreshed, not only copied text that will become stale.
• Deduplicate by item ID, move re-opened items to the top, and enforce a visible count or lifetime cap.
• Label the section with the scope, such as Recently viewed in this workspace or Recently viewed on this device.
• Provide remove and clear controls with copy that distinguishes history removal from item deletion.
• Respect private browsing, signed-out, managed-device, consent, and account-sync settings.
• Refresh or mark unavailable entries before navigation so stale links do not fail without explanation.
• Keep the rail keyboard-accessible and avoid auto-advancing carousels that hide older recent items.

Common Generated-UI Mistakes

• Filling recently viewed with recommendations, ads, popular items, or related content.
• Showing sensitive history on shared screens, public kiosks, or signed-out experiences.
• Making recent items permanent when users expect a short session memory.
• Mixing automatic recents with saved, pinned, or favorite items.
• Duplicating the same item every time it is opened.
• Using browser click path as breadcrumbs or recently viewed as the only wayfinding tool.
• Removing the underlying item when the user only meant to remove it from history.

Critique Questions

• What exact user action qualifies an item as viewed?
• Can users recognize each recent item without reopening it?
• What is the right count, lifetime, and account scope for this task?
• What privacy harm occurs if this list appears on a shared device or screen share?
• How can users remove an unexpected item without deleting the item itself?
• Is the team using recency to mask weak search, filters, saved items, or recommendations?