10 min read
Reflecting on my life as a consumer, I realized I’ve been hooked on digital products at least 60% of my free time. Pinterest hooks me because I crave creative inspiration. LinkedIn, Coursera and Udemy give me hope of the American dream. Kate Spade surprise sales quarterly knock me and my wallet off balance because they promise a colorful life full of surprises and adventures - something I feel I've been missing out lately.
We are being caught like fish by the hook of our existential vulnerabilities.
And this is what the book Hooked by Nir Eyal is about. It is an outstanding book on “behavioral design” for UX designers, Product managers, and entrepreneurs. But most importantly, it is a book for consumers of digital products who want to know what their inner void that’s driving their consumerist behavior is. And this awarenesses can potentially make us unhooked because we start paying attention.
The 4-step loop of getting hooked
I'm not going to have many spoilers but here is a short summary of the 4-step process described by Nir Eyal.
Trigger
"What do users really want? What pain is your product relieving?"
It all starts with a trigger that prompts the behavior. Lots of products begin with external triggers like phone notifications or emails. Ideally, user starts associating a product with internal triggers (negative emotions like boredom, anxiety, a fear of missing out). Every time a user experiences one or couple of these emotions, a product becomes a remedy for it. Think of an Instagram pampering your fear for losing the present moment, when the fear of losing the present moment is precisely what causes us to miss out on it.
“Once a technology has created an association in users’ minds that the product is the solution of choice, they return on their own, no longer needing prompts from external triggers.”
How can we find out potential triggers? The famous "5 Why's" exercise created by Honda Motor Company and cited in the book can be invaluable when discovering your own pain points as a human being. I did the exercise for my fashion shopping addition, and the fifth "why" got me to the true reason why I'm hooked up. The discovery which made me both laugh an cry.
2. Action
"What is the simplest action users take in anticipation of reward, and how can you simplify your product to make this action easier?"
When a trigger emotion arrives, there is a possibility that we will open a product to fill our void and complete an action. However, we are still missing two more ingredients of a secret sauce. One is sufficient motivation, another one is sufficient ability.
“there are three ingredients required to initiate any and all behaviors: (1) the user must have sufficient motivation; (2) the user must have the ability to complete the desired action; and (3) a trigger must be present to activate the behavior.”
How do Product managers and UX designers facilitate motivation and the ability to complete an action? By making user experience as simple and rewarding as possible, using heuristic evaluations, and decreasing the amount of steps it takes to complete user tasks.
3. Reward
“Are users fulfilled by the reward, yet left wanting more?”
A rewards is a benefit that users receive from using a product. To develop a habit, they should be variable. Unpredictable rewards are like slot machines, they increase our dopamine levels and strengthen the habit. The three types of variable rewards are rewards of the tribe (think of Quora users who spend hours answering questions for free in a pursuit of social validation); rewards of the hunt (fashion shopping); rewards of the Self (a promise of mastery and completion hooks Coursera and Udemy users).
“Variable rewards are one of the most powerful tools companies implement to hook users.”
4. Investment
"What “bit of work” do users invest in your product? Does it load the next trigger and store value to improve the product with use?"
To stay hooked, people should invest time and effort into a product. The more time you spend on creating that YouTube video, the more likely you will use YouTube tomorrow. And the day after. There are other investments, too, like storing your data, building an online presence and reputation, inviting friends to use a new platform, and spending hours to learn features.
Where can I get unhooked?
The audio version is available on Audible, and the best part is that it comes with four related ebooks - in case you want to get hooked on Product psychology even more. Here is a great talk by the author too.
Have a rewarding journey!