1. Autonomy - Behavior that is self-enforced or self-initiated. Autonomy provides for a sense of freedom in how you live your life, allowing you to get excited about your own choices.
2. Competence - Feeling effective in your environment. A sense of competence helps people feel like they play a role in solving their own problem.
3. Relatedness - Feeling cared for and connected with others; sense of belonging. Humans are social creatures and have a powerful need to be connected and recognized by others. This applies to social networks for example.

Self-determination theory breaks motivation down by the underlying triggers that result in increased user engagement.

SDT is useful in the design process because it tells designers how to provide the necessary factors that users look for in products and services.