User:Francg/expub/hookedlooped/eyal

Nir Eyal on Building habit-forming products

The technology we use every day it profoundly changes our behaviours. What is it about these companies that allow them very quickly fundamentally change users database habits? What patterns of habits and behaviours with little or not conscious thought is done online? Use the psychology of habit design to help people live happier, healthier more fulfilling more connected lives.

There is a pattern to habit forming technologies called “the hook”: connects users problem to your solution with enough frequency to form a habit. There are different levels through these hooks, where we create preferences. These hooks have four parts: triggers, action, reward and investment.

Triggers: External and internal

External triggers are very connected to designers. They activate the action for instance a button “play this”, “watch this”, word of mouth through friends “you should try this”.

Internal triggers cue the next action to information to what to do next. They dictate our habits through powerful negative emotions (lonesome, indecisive, powerless, dissatisfied, inferior, fatigued, confused, fear of loss, bored, lost, etc.). Science says: “People that have clinical depression check Email more” (overwhelming Inbox). Psychologists call it: “Negative veiling (hidden/covered) states”, so to lift user’s mood they use it more often.

What is that internal trigger which we form an association with? For instance: Instagram. It not only captures the moment with pictures, but it is also a social network, so the more times users past the four steps of the hook, the more they begin to associate using Instagram with this other internal triggers: “FOMO” fear of missing out.

The action face is the simplest behaviour in anticipation of reward; something is simple as a scroll (Pinterest), searching (Google), the act of pushing a play button (Youtube). There is a formula* that helps us predict these behaviours online and offline (first formulated by BJ Fogg).

B (behaviour) = m (motivation) + a (ability) + t (triggers)

- Motivation is the energy for action. Seek pleasure, avoid pain. Seek hope, avoid fear. Seek social acceptance, avoid social rejection.

- Ability is the capacity to do a particular behaviour (how easy or difficult something to do is). How much time or physical effort is required? The harder something is to understand, the less likely it is for that behaviour to occur. Non-routine is an important factor (why habits have a repeat effect): Practice, the more we do something the easier it becomes.

- Therefore, if the user has sufficient motivation and ability, the behaviour is occurred and the trigger is successfully activated.

How to activate this? By using rewards, stimulating an area of the brain called “the nucleus accumbens”. Providing electric current to that part of the brain on lab animals to stimulate that part of the brain, they were run across electrified grids to go for food, water, etc. just to continue to experience that sensation. They experience the same behaviour with people through other things that also activated the “nucleus accumbens” such as luxury goods, sex, junk food or technology. It turns out that the task of the “nucleus accumbens” isn’t to stimulate pleasure, but to stimulate the stress of desire (wanting, anticipation, craving) making it the role of the brain’s reward system. The ‘nucleus accumbens’ becomes active in anticipation of the reward, when we receive the reward that part of the brain becomes less active.

There is a way to super-charge that stress of desire: through the “unknown”, because this variability, mystery or intrigue causes us to increase focus, engagement and it is highly habit-forming.

3 Types of variable rewards: the tribe, hunt and the self.

1- Tribe: These are social rewards, empathetic joys, partnerships, cooperation or competition. Example: Social Network (people comments, likes, answers). “Stack Overflow” (World’s largest technical question answer): Everytime you comments you earn points.

2- Hunt: Search for resources. For instance, information can be a form of variable reward found in the “feed” (like money when gambling). Interestingly, every technology product seems to have a type of feed mechanism.

3- Self: search for self-achievement. Those things that feel good, intrinsic motivators like: control, confidence or consistency. Game play, getting to the next level and accomplishment = Inbox: checking unread messages, clearing box, finishing your to-do-list.

Finally comes the Investment part: here all is about future rewards, which increases the hook in 2 ways:

1- Investments load the next trigger: For instance, when we send a message on Whatsapp we get nothing (no immediate reward) but we load the next trigger (someone’s reply: “new message” icon/alert) which makes you more likely to use it again.

2- Investments store value: the product becomes more valuable through use. The more data we put in, the more valuable the product becomes. For instance in Twitter, the more followers we have the more valuable the product becomes as a way to reach our audience.

Reputation is a form of stored value: by spending time in investing on reputation, we are also less likely to be taken away by a competitor in e.g. eBay or Airbnb.

In order to create a product that forms habits, we have to then ask the following:
1- What’s the user’s motivation (internal triggers)?
2- What prompts the next action (external trigger)?
3- What’s the simplest behaviour done in anticipation of reward?
4- Is the reward fulfilling?
5- What’s the ‘bit of work’ done to increase the likelihood of returning?

Morality of Manipulation:
The designing of habit-forming products, are a form of manipulation. Our technologies are becoming the addiction of this age. We have the responsibility as designers to use the psychology of habit-design, to pick up a problem, help people find meaning and build the change that we wish to see in the World.