• Rewards are unpredictable in the timing and size of reward.
• Variable rewards drive more user activity than fixed rewards. Companies that offer a chance at variable rewards such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter get more users hooked to their products.

“Expe...

• To increase the likelihood that an action will occur, product designers should focus on simplicity. Designers can also use heuristics to influence user behaviour.

Elements of simplicity:

• Time. An indication of how long it takes to complete an action

To build effective hooks:

1. Look for internal triggers. Ask yourself what pain is the product relieving
2. Find the external trigger. Ask yourself what brings users to your service
3. Simplify. Make it as easy...

With the Hook Model, it is easy to manipulate users. The maker of a product needs to ask two questions: 

• would I use the product myself?
• will the product help users materially and improve their lives?

• User habits are good for business because they create unprompted user engagement.
• Companies can determine their product’s habit-forming potential by plotting two factors: frequency and perceived utility.
• Frequency is the level of enga...

The manipulation matrix: Has four quadrants that show the different types of creators: the peddler, the facilitator, the dealer, and the entertainer.

1. The facilitator. The facilitator helps users create healthy habits
2. The peddler. 

Types of variable rewards:

• Tribe. Rewards of the tribe are driven by our social connections to others
• Hunt. Pursuing material things and resources is rewarding in itself
• Self. Humans have intrinsic motivation to better ...

• People seek to be consistent with past behaviours and also seek to avoid cognitive dissonance.
• Cognitive dissonance: Holding contradictory beliefs and attitudes that result in psychological stress when challenged. Humans generally seek to avoid cognitive dissonance.

• A trigger is what starts a behaviour. It is the spark in the engine.  There are two types of triggers: external and internal.
• External triggers exist as part of the environment. They include phone apps, emails, photographs, etc. Internal triggers are...

Forms of investment in digital products include:

• Following. Facebook and Twitter allow users to follow others
• Posting. Users can create content on social media that they see as forms of investment
• Reputation. Likes and ...

• The Hook Model explains the four-phase process that companies use to form habits.
• The four phases are a trigger, action, variable reward, and investment.
• For companies, the desire is to achieve the goal of unprompted user engagement with their products.

Action follows the trigger phase.

“The trigger, driven by internal and external cues, informs the user of what to do next.”

Ingredients that are needed to initiate any and all behaviours:

1. Sufficient motivation
2. Abil...

• Variable rewards can lead to compulsive behaviour on the part of the user. There is email addiction, social media addiction, and even addiction to news cycles. This form of addiction happens because with variable rewards you never know what you are going to get.
• Only...

To create a truly innovative product:

1. Understand the reason why people use a product or service
2. Layout the steps that the customer must take to get the job done
3. Remove steps until you reach the simplest possible process

• Companies should create the goal of making users invest as part of the engagement with their product or service. That way, they will be more likely to come back.

“Investments increase the likelihood of users returning by improving the service the more it is used. They enable ...

External triggers communicate the next action that a user should take.

For example:

Many e-commerce websites feature prominent buttons asking users to Buy Now or Subscribe.

Types of external triggers:

• Paid triggers. These include adve...