How can companies create habit-forming products? Here is a thought: They create them.
How do you engineer user behavior? Are there moral implications? Could these forces be used for good (hmm..). Nir Eyal, back in 2008 tried to looked around for a guide. Nothing he found could satisfied him so he documented his experiences, reading, and observations of hundreds of companies “to uncover patterns in user experience designs and functionality.” He wanted to know what was common between the “winners” and determine what was missing from the “losers.”
The result of this great work is described in his book: Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and the creation of the Hook Model: a four-phase process that companies use to form habits.
How do you engineer user behavior? Are there moral implications? Could these forces be used for good (hmm..). Nir Eyal, back in 2008 tried to looked around for a guide. Nothing he found could satisfied him so he documented his experiences, reading, and observations of hundreds of companies “to uncover patterns in user experience designs and functionality.” He wanted to know what was common between the “winners” and determine what was missing from the “losers.”
The result of this great work is described in his book: Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and the creation of the Hook Model: a four-phase process that companies use to form habits.
Lets analyze these steps:
1. Trigger
A trigger is that the actuator of behavior — the sparking plug within the engine. Triggers are available two types: external and internal. Habit-forming products start by alerting users with external triggers like an email, a web site link, or the app icon on a phone.
For example, suppose Dana, a young lady in Pennsylvania, happens to determine a photograph in her Facebook newsfeed taken by a friend from a rural a part of the state. It’s a beautiful picture and since she is planning a visit there along with her brother Johnny, the external trigger’s call-to-action intrigues her and she or he clicks. By cycling through successive hooks, users begin to create associations with internal triggers, which attach to existing behaviors and emotions.
When users start to automatically cue their next behavior, the new habit becomes a part of their everyday routine. Over time, Dana associates Facebook together with her need for social connection.
2. Action
Following the trigger comes the action: the behavior tired anticipation of a bequest. the straightforward action of clicking on the interesting picture in her newsfeed takes Dana to an internet site called Pinterest, a “pinboard-style photo-sharing” site.
This phase of the hook, as described in chapter three, draws upon the art and science of usability design to reveal how products drive specific user actions. Companies leverage two basic pulleys of human behavior to extend the likelihood of an action occurring: the benefit of performing an action and therefore the psychological motivation to try and do it.
Once Dana completes the straightforward action of clicking on the photo, she is dazzled by what she sees next.
3. Variable Reward
What distinguishes the Hook Model from a lucid vanilla electrical circuit is that the hook’s ability to make a craving. Feedback loops are all around us, but predictable ones don’t create desire. The unsurprising response of your fridge light turning on once you open the door doesn’t drive you to stay opening it again and again. However, add some variability to the combo — say a unique treat magically appears in your fridge each time you open it — and voila, intrigue is formed.
Variable rewards are one in all the foremost powerful tools companies implement to hook users; chapter four explains them in further detail. Research shows that levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine surge when the brain is expecting a gift. Introducing variability multiplies the effect, creating a focused state, which suppresses the areas of the brain related to judgment and reason while activating the parts related to wanting and desire. Although classic examples include slot machines and lotteries, variable rewards are prevalent in many other habit-forming products.
When Dana lands on Pinterest, not only does she see the image she intended to seek out, but she is additionally served a large number of other glittering objects. the pictures are associated with what she is mostly inquisitive about — namely things to determine on her upcoming trip to rural Pennsylvania — but there are other things that catch her eye moreover. The exciting juxtaposition of relevant and irrelevant, tantalizing and plain, beautiful and customary, sets her brain’s dopamine system aflutter with the promise of reward. Now she’s spending longer on Pinterest, looking for|trying to find} the subsequent wonderful thing to find. Before she knows it, she’s spent 45 minutes scrolling.
4. Investment
The last phase of the Hook Model is where the user does a small amount of labor. The investment phase increases the chances that the user will make another labor under the hook cycle within the future. The investment occurs when the user puts something into the merchandise or service like time, data, effort, social capital, or money.
However, the investment phase isn’t about users opening up their wallets and moving on with their day. Rather, the investment implies an action that improves the service for the subsequent go-around. Inviting friends, stating preferences , building virtual assets, and learning to use new features are all investments users make to boost their experience. These commitments will be leveraged to form the trigger more engaging, the action easier, and also the reward more exciting with every suffer the hook cycle. …
As Dana enjoys endlessly scrolling through the Pinterest cornucopia, she builds a desire to stay the items that delight her. By collecting items, she’ll be giving the location data about her preferences. Soon she is going to follow, pin, re-pin, and make other investments, which serve to extend her ties to the location and prime her for future loops through the hook.
Hooked: the way to Build Habit-Forming Products goes on to explore external and internal triggers, why some people eventually lose their taste sure experiences, the impact of variability on retention, and the way investments encourage users to cycle through successive hooks.
1. Trigger
A trigger is that the actuator of behavior — the sparking plug within the engine. Triggers are available two types: external and internal. Habit-forming products start by alerting users with external triggers like an email, a web site link, or the app icon on a phone.
For example, suppose Dana, a young lady in Pennsylvania, happens to determine a photograph in her Facebook newsfeed taken by a friend from a rural a part of the state. It’s a beautiful picture and since she is planning a visit there along with her brother Johnny, the external trigger’s call-to-action intrigues her and she or he clicks. By cycling through successive hooks, users begin to create associations with internal triggers, which attach to existing behaviors and emotions.
When users start to automatically cue their next behavior, the new habit becomes a part of their everyday routine. Over time, Dana associates Facebook together with her need for social connection.
2. Action
Following the trigger comes the action: the behavior tired anticipation of a bequest. the straightforward action of clicking on the interesting picture in her newsfeed takes Dana to an internet site called Pinterest, a “pinboard-style photo-sharing” site.
This phase of the hook, as described in chapter three, draws upon the art and science of usability design to reveal how products drive specific user actions. Companies leverage two basic pulleys of human behavior to extend the likelihood of an action occurring: the benefit of performing an action and therefore the psychological motivation to try and do it.
Once Dana completes the straightforward action of clicking on the photo, she is dazzled by what she sees next.
3. Variable Reward
What distinguishes the Hook Model from a lucid vanilla electrical circuit is that the hook’s ability to make a craving. Feedback loops are all around us, but predictable ones don’t create desire. The unsurprising response of your fridge light turning on once you open the door doesn’t drive you to stay opening it again and again. However, add some variability to the combo — say a unique treat magically appears in your fridge each time you open it — and voila, intrigue is formed.
Variable rewards are one in all the foremost powerful tools companies implement to hook users; chapter four explains them in further detail. Research shows that levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine surge when the brain is expecting a gift. Introducing variability multiplies the effect, creating a focused state, which suppresses the areas of the brain related to judgment and reason while activating the parts related to wanting and desire. Although classic examples include slot machines and lotteries, variable rewards are prevalent in many other habit-forming products.
When Dana lands on Pinterest, not only does she see the image she intended to seek out, but she is additionally served a large number of other glittering objects. the pictures are associated with what she is mostly inquisitive about — namely things to determine on her upcoming trip to rural Pennsylvania — but there are other things that catch her eye moreover. The exciting juxtaposition of relevant and irrelevant, tantalizing and plain, beautiful and customary, sets her brain’s dopamine system aflutter with the promise of reward. Now she’s spending longer on Pinterest, looking for|trying to find} the subsequent wonderful thing to find. Before she knows it, she’s spent 45 minutes scrolling.
4. Investment
The last phase of the Hook Model is where the user does a small amount of labor. The investment phase increases the chances that the user will make another labor under the hook cycle within the future. The investment occurs when the user puts something into the merchandise or service like time, data, effort, social capital, or money.
However, the investment phase isn’t about users opening up their wallets and moving on with their day. Rather, the investment implies an action that improves the service for the subsequent go-around. Inviting friends, stating preferences , building virtual assets, and learning to use new features are all investments users make to boost their experience. These commitments will be leveraged to form the trigger more engaging, the action easier, and also the reward more exciting with every suffer the hook cycle. …
As Dana enjoys endlessly scrolling through the Pinterest cornucopia, she builds a desire to stay the items that delight her. By collecting items, she’ll be giving the location data about her preferences. Soon she is going to follow, pin, re-pin, and make other investments, which serve to extend her ties to the location and prime her for future loops through the hook.
Hooked: the way to Build Habit-Forming Products goes on to explore external and internal triggers, why some people eventually lose their taste sure experiences, the impact of variability on retention, and the way investments encourage users to cycle through successive hooks.