Hooked - Chapter 0 - Introduction

I recently picked up Nir Eyal's book Hooked - How to Build Habit-Forming Products.  I've been really interested in learning more about what makes games "sticky" for the player (i.e. makes the player want to come back and keep playing), and this book had super high reviews on Amazon.  

This book is about building "habit forming products", but from the beginning it's very clear the author is mainly targeting those in the technology industry, although the concepts could apply to other industries.  The author does note however that certain industries are not based around habit-forming consumer cycles and this won't be applicable there (such as life insurance companies and credit card companies are more interested in CLV (consumer lifetime value) and use traditional advertising methods to get the clients into the product, but have to do very little to keep them since they automatically just stick with what they signed up with for a very long time).

But for games, this is a perfect topic.  I've also purchased another book about addictive casino game design which I'll be looking at after Hooked

NOTES

Introduction 

* Habits - "automatic behaviors triggered by situational cues" - things we do with little or no conscious thought.

* "First to Mind" - app/product comes to mind immediately before the rational thought (ex- bored, reach for twitter - have a question, reach for google (instinctively!) - these apps are "first to mind" (perhaps this is a play on the phrase "first to market").

** Companies that form strong user habits know how to attach their product to "internal triggers" in the users.

** They link services to users' daily routines and emotions.

Hooked Model

* Four-phase process companies use to form habits - " Through consecutive hook cycles, successful products reach their ultimate goal of unprompted user engagement, bringing users back repeatedly, without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging."



Credit: Eyal, Nir.  Diagram from the book Hooked. 2019. Hooked, by Nir Eyal.

1) Trigger - Actuator of behavior - spark plug in the engine.

* 2 types: external, internal

2) Action - Bahavior done in anticipation of a reward.

* 2 human behavior pulleys leveraged - 1) ease of performing the action and 2) psychological motivation to doing it 

3) Variable reward - key to create a craving - there must be a reward, but it also must be different each time - that is the key.

* Research show levels of dopamine surge when brain is expecting a reward - variability creates focused state which suppresses areas of brain associated with judgment and reason while activating the parts associated with wanting and desire.

4) Investment -Increase the odds that the user makes another pass in the future - when user puts something into the product of service - investment implies action that improves the service for next time.

* Time, data, effort, social capital, money

* Examples: inviting friends, stating preferences, building virtual assets, learning to use new features, money, data, etc.

* Can be leveraged to make experience easier/better next time through the Hooked cycle.

* investment could be - user

Quote: "Unless the forms of technological progress that produced these things are subject to different laws than technological progress in general, the world will get more addictive in the next 40 years than it did in the last 40." - Paul Graham.

Superpower - Could be used for bad, but could also be used for great good.

Hooked model is practical tool - not exhaustive one - more details on his website NirAndFar.com


Remember and Share section

The convergence of access, data, and speed is making the world a more habit-forming place.

Businesses that create customer habits gain a significant competitive advantage.

The hooked Model describes an experience designed to connect the user's problem to a company's product frequently enough to form a habit.

The Hooked Model has four phases: trigger, action, variable reward, and investment.


Next post: Chapter 1



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hooked - Chapter 4 - Variable Reward

 Variable Reward The nucleus accumbens is considered as the neural interface between motivation and action, playing a key role on feeding, sexual, reward, stress-related, drug self-administration behaviors, etc. Nucleus accumbens not activating when the reward (in this case a monetary payout) was received, but rather in anticipation of it. The study revealed that what draws us to act is not the sensation we receive from the reward itself, but the need to alleviate the craving for that reward. Habits are brain's ability to quickly retrieve the appropriate behavioral response to a routine or process we have already learned. However - when something breaks the cause-and-effect pattern we've come to expect, when we encounter something outside the norm, we suddenly become aware of it again. Novelty sparks our interest, makes us pay attention, and we seem to love it. Remember And Share Section (Summary of Points) * Variable reward is the 3rd phase of the Hooked Model and there are 3...
Read more

Hooked - Chapter 5 - Investment

Investment The investment stage is the 4th stage of the Hooked model - unlike action phase, which delivers immediate gratification, the investment phase concerns the anticipation of rewards in the future. Remember and Share The investment phase is the 4th step in the Hooked Model. Unlike Action phase, which delivers immediate gratification, investment phase concerns the anticipation of rewards in the future. Investments in a product create preferences because of our tendency to overvalue our work, be consistent with past behaviors, and avoid cognitive dissonance. Investment comes after the variable reward phase, when users are primed to reciprocate. Investments increase the likelihood of users returning by improving the service the more it is used.  They enable the accrual of stored value in the form of content, data, followers, reputation, or skill. Investments increase the likelihood of users passing through the Hook again by loading the next trigger to start the cycle all over a...
Read more