we've all seen how the products we use
can change our behaviors and put in
particular these personal technologies
like our iPhones email Twitter snapchat
whatsapp all these products that change
our daily behavior they keep us checking
again and again and again how do these
products do it
these products are masters of habit
these behaviors that we do with little
or no conscious thought turns out that
about 40 percent of what you do day in
and day out whether you like it or not
is done purely out of habit I'd like to
share with you a design pattern that
companies use to build habit forming
products it's a technique that I've
learned in my years in the advertising
and gaming space and it's what I teach
at the design school at Stanford
University it's called the hook the hook
is an experience designed to connect the
users problem to the company's product
with enough frequency to form a habit
now these hooks start with a trigger a
trigger tells us what to do next it can
be some piece of information like play
this or click here now we see these
external triggers all the time right
there in our environment in our day to
day lives but what we don't consider
enough and what turns out to be
absolutely critical to forming these
long-term habits is creating an
association with what's called an
internal trigger internal triggers are
things that tell us what to do next but
where the information for what to do is
stored as a memory inside the users head
so what we do when we're in a particular
place a certain situation partaking in a
particular routine or experience certain
emotions dictates what we do next now
the most frequent internal triggers are
not just any emotion they are in fact
negative emotions so what we do when
we're free
are bored or lost or dissatisfied or
lonely what we do when we experience
these negative emotions prompts us to
action dictates what we do next with
little or no conscious thought in fact a
recent study found that people suffering
from depression check email more I think
I just saw one two three people put away
their phone well what does this mean why
is this happening well it turns out that
people suffering from depression
experience what psychologists call
negative valence safe they feel down
more frequently than the rest of the
population and what are they doing to
boost their mood to get out of that
negative valence state they're going
online they're checking their devices
more often than the rest of the
population but of course we all do this
to some degree don't we where do we go
when we're feeling lonely what app or
website do we check Facebook of course
what about when we're unsure about
something before we scan our brains to
see if we know the answer we're googling
it and what about when we're feeling
bored well that's when people go on to
YouTube or reddit check stock prices
sports scores the front-page news
lots of these solutions for this painful
internal trigger of boredom so after the
internal trigger cues us to action next
comes the action phase defined as the
simplest behavior done in anticipation
of a reward it's something as simple as
a scroll on Pinterest or a quick search
on Google or what could be easier and
then pushing the play button on YouTube
turns out there's actually a formula to
help us predict the likelihood of these
behaviors comes to us from our
researcher at Stanford by the name of BJ
Fogg who tells us that for any behavior
B we require three things sufficient
motivation sufficient ability and a
trigger must be present so we can plot
these three elements on this graph
motivation on the y-axis ability on the
X so if something is very easy to do
it's on the far right if something is
difficult to do it on the far left and
when we cross that red threshold and the
trigger is present the behavior occurs
every single time online/offline your B
behavior your spouse or kids behavior
your customer or users behavior always
requires these three basic elements of
motivation ability and triggers and what
we see happening today is that companies
building habit forming technologies are
pushing that ability curve as far to the
right as possible because what they know
is that the easier behavior is to do the
more likely we are to do it and next
comes the reward now when we talk about
rewards we have to talk about the brain
and in particular an area of the brain
called the nucleus accumbens now what's
so interesting about the nucleus
accumbens is that it becomes most active
in anticipation of a reward but when we
actually get the thing we want the thing
that's finally going to make us happy
and make us feel good that's when the
nucleus accumbens becomes less active so
the way the brain gets us to act is by
stimulating this itch that we seek to
scratch and it turns out that there is a
way to supercharge that itch does
anybody want to know how to manufacture
desire
I'm doing it to you right now because
the unknown is fascinating so when I
took that long pause and I asked you a
question I didn't say anything some of
you forgot thought what's going to
happen next did I forget my lines what's
going to happen and it turns out that
that bit of the unknown the bit of
mystery causes us to increase focus and
engage and so in all sorts of products
that you find most habit-forming most
engaging think about the products that
capture your attention and won't let go
you will find one or more of these three
types of variable rewards rewards of the
tribe rewards of the hunt and rewards of
the self rewards of the tribe are things
that feel good that have this element of
variability and come from other people
good example I can think of online is
social media so when I open up the
Facebook app I'm not quite sure what
photos I might see or what the comments
might say or how many likes did I get
high degree of social variability next
comes the rewards of the hunt now when I
talk about rewards of the hunt people
often think about slot machines they
think about gambling where of course the
variability comes from what you might
win when you play these games of chance
but it turns out we find the exact same
psychology online consider the feed have
you wondered why so many products today
online have this feed mechanism take a
look at Twitter's timeline for example
if I open up Twitter maybe the first
tweets not that interesting maybe the
second tweets not that interesting but
maybe the third or fourth is interesting
and what do I have to do to see more of
that interesting content well all I have
to do is to keep scrolling and scrolling
and that scrolling use the exact same
psychology as pulling on a slot machine
variable rewards of the hunt
and finally variable rewards of the self
variable rewards of the self are things
that feel good that have this element of
variability but don't come from other
people and aren't about these
information or material rewards these
are things that are intrinsically
pleasurable the search for mastery
consistency competency and
trol so when we're playing games online
for example candy crush Angry Birds any
of these games I'm not playing with
other people I'm not necessarily even
winning anything in terms of material
rewards but there's something fun and
engaging about getting to the next level
the next accomplishment and I know I
know some people say to me look I don't
play these games I'm not much of a gamer
this this doesn't really apply to me
but if you're anything like me I bet
you're playing this game every day
checking those unread messages finishing
the to do's on your to-do list or the
thing that always gets me is opening up
that one app so I can clear it away on
my home screen are all examples of
variable rewards of the self the search
for mastery consistency competency and
control finally the last step of the
hook is the investment phase the
investment phase is where the user does
something to increase the likelihood of
their next pass through the hook one way
that investments increase the likelihood
of the next pass is by storing value now
storing value is a really big deal
because when it comes to the physical
products that we use in our day to day
lives think about these chairs your
clothing everything in the physical
world loses value with wear and tear
they depreciate butt habit-forming
products should do the opposite they
should appreciate in value and they do
this because of this principle of stored
value so the more content I put into my
Google Drive the more data I give to
mint.com or any number of other services
the more followers I accrue the more my
reputation improves on sites like upwork
or ebay or Airbnb the better the product
becomes to me and how likely am I to
leave one of these products or services
after I've stored all this value in the
platform the product suddenly becomes
kind of sticky it's hard to leave which
brings me to this cold hard conclusion
then when it comes to many of the
products and services that we use there
is no rule that says the best product
wins in fact it's the product that can
form
from the mine monopoly the one that can
create the habit that captures the
market because it's through successive
cycles through these hooks trigger
action reward investment that customer
preferences are shaped that our tastes
are formed and that these habits take
hold so now that we know how these
products hook us what do we do with this
information well to many of us these
products seem frivolous and maybe these
companies tactics seem manipulative I
think we're all going to have to figure
out which of these products serve us and
which hurt us but when I look at these
products and services I ask myself what
can we learn because the real problem
here is not that a few companies have
mastered habit-forming product design
the real problem is that too many
products and services out there are not
engaging enough think about the products
that you're forced to use every day at
work or at school
consider the state-of-the-art products
that we have to use to interact with our
government services or even with the
companies that we depend upon these
products and services they don't suck us
in not in the way that Facebook or our
iPhone might know these products just
plain-old suck so I think that we can do
much much better because what makes
these products so engaging also makes
them better there is an entire world of
products out there that failed to engage
us because the product makers don't
understand the psychology of good
product design but there are some
products out there leading the way I've
had the pleasure of working with and
investing in many companies that are
using hooks for good and I'm
particularly excited about these
companies that can use hooks to help
people in need a veteran suffering from
PTSD or a parent of a child with a
disability or someone suffering from
depression can use an app like this one
to connect with a counselor anytime
and for free the hook is simple the
trigger is feeling down the action is
simply opening the app the variable
reward of the tribe is connecting with a
counselor and the investment and here's
where it gets really interesting is
learning to become a counselor listener
yourself this one app and there are many
others like it services a hundred and
thirty thousand sessions per week in a
hundred and eighty countries in 140
languages by forming this habit of not
only connecting people but helping them
get better themselves by helping others
you see I think we can use habit-forming
technology to help people live happier
healthier more connected more productive
lives
truly we can use habits for good thank
you very much