The unsurprising response of your fridge light turning on when you open the door doesn't drive you to keep opening it again and again.However, add some variability to the mix - say a different treat magically appears in your fridge every time you open it — and voila, intrigue is created.

When we talk about the iPhone, Instagram, or Facebook being the most successful products in the world, the reason is not just because the products were the first of their kind, in fact, the main cause of their success is that they helped us form habits. Most of the consumers today believe they can’t live without their smartphones. Same goes for the social media sites which got us so hooked that we have started posting everything we are doing on these sites.

What Makes A Product Successful?

Ian Bogost, the famed game creator and professor, calls the wave of habit-forming technologies the 'cigarette of this century' and warns of their equally addictive and potentiallydestructive side - effects.

Many innovations fail because consumers irrationally overvalue the old, while the companies irrationally overvalue the new.

Some associate the success of a product with the level of usage it brings, some associate it to the R&D, some with marketing and others with price. However, Nir Eyal associates the success of a product to the measure of how hooked it get the users.

So What Is A Successful Product?

So what’s the benefits of these habit forming products? Well, as we cannot break these habits, we get so involved that we inevitably become life-long loyal fans of these products. You may have witnessed the queues outside the Apple Stores whenever there is a new iPhone being launched. Another great benefit of the habit forming products is that they get you so hooked that you’d be willing to pay a premium price to have them. Even if iPhones get (even more) expensive, the iPhone loyal (and royal) users are still going to buy them.

Habits Make Customers

Lastly, books like Hooked, Influence, Contagious, Buyology and others of the likes gives you great understanding of the consumers’ minds but it also means that you need to be very responsible in leveraging this information. The wrong habit-forming product can literally destroy lives and you wouldn’t want that on your conscience. Make sure your product makes your users happy as well as help them achieve a better quality of life.

You don’t have to not offer the rewards to your users. In fact, you can design a mix of different rewards so the experience can stay fresh. For example, if you have a fitness product, you can maybe offer a free blog on living longer, a free video from a beloved fitness guru, or badges to be shared on the social media once a user achieves a milestone. Maintaining a mix of rewards is going to help you keep your users engaged.

Keep Changing Your Rewards

Why would you find a funny video in your newsfeed one day but may not find another one in the next few sessions? Well, that is because finding something worthy gives you a dopamine hit. The companies don’t want you to get fully resistant to that dopamine hit so they keep offering variable rewards which means you may sometimes discover a reward immediately but may not at other times. This keeps your interest in the product and the discovery of that reward consistent which in turn helps the company get better retention from you. You can also get different rewards to be hooked to the product.

Variable Rewards Means You May Sometimes Not Get A Reward

How do these habit forming products reward you? Well, for one, they help you experience a feeling non habit-forming products can’t offer. For example, the infinite scroll on TikTok, Facebook or Instagram are designed so you are always excited (and interested) about something interesting to be discovered. But you won’t always find that something “interesting” and that may be by design.

Variable Rewards Are The Key Element

Ethical and moral responsibility holds the most importance when it comes to habit-forming product. You do not want to turn your users into addicts as that can literally destroy their lives. For that, Nir Eyal suggests using two approaches:1- The product should improve the users’ lives significantly.1- The developers should imagine themselves or even their loved ones using the products to estimate the consequences of the habit forming. Change lives for the betterment of it not because it makes you money and you can have both wealth and satisfaction.

Hooked But Not Addicted

Hooked shows us how different products are designed to make us form habits and how you can achieve the same level of habit forming behaviour for your products.

Revised and Updated, Featuring a New Case Study How do successful companies create products people can’t put down? Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.Eyal provides readers with:• Practical insights to create user habits that stick. • Actionable steps for building products people love.• Fascinating examples from the iPhone to Twitter, Pinterest to the Bible App, and many other habit-forming products.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

books

Books

product

Product & Design

Nir Eyal is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Nir Eyal has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Nir Eyal's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

NIR EYAL

Similar ideas

7 Things You Need To Understand About Anxiety And Depression