How to Build Habit-Forming Products in Four Steps

By Marc Dresner, IIR

Email, Facebook, Twitter'most of
us engage in one or more of these and other, similar types of pursuits every
day, usually many times a day, without fail and typically without being
prompted to do so.

Some of these activities we can justify.

Maybe not Angry Birds, but we all
need email, right? Our jobs demand it.

Even on vacation'with autoreply'when
all projects and accounts are in safe hands and you've dotted all the i's and
crossed all the t's before walking out the door'

Let's be honest: Do you tell your
colleagues not to email you while you're away on vacation or is it usually the
other way around?

My boss once threatened me with
an additional week of vacation if I emailed
her again from whatever beach I was suffering on.

And I'm not even a workaholic.

Sometimes, it's not a
matter of choice; it's an inescapable compulsion.

Indeed, deprivation studies show time
and again that when separated from one's favorite device'usually a smartphone'for
even just a single day, people frequently experience intense anxiety.

Nir Eyal refers to the apps and
such to which we as a society seem increasingly tethered as 'habit-forming
technologies.'

'These products
somehow draw us to use them,' said Eyal. 'It's unprompted engagement. They
don't necessarily say, 'Hey, come open this app,' and yet we still take out our
phone and do it anyway.'

In
short, a 'habit' occurs with some regularity and usually with little or no
conscious thought.

And in his new book, 'Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products,' Eyal explores the how and why behind this
behavior and introduces a model for developing products that cultivate it.

'The
process, the pattern that we see habit-forming technologies take time and time
again is a four-step process I call the 'Hook Model,'' Eyal told The Research Insighter.

'The Hook Model is very
simply an approach to connect your user's problem to your solution with enough
frequency to form a habit,' he added.

While
this should appeal to anyone in product development for obvious reasons, geek
that I am, I couldn't help but wonder how the Hook Model might be applied to increase
research response and cooperation.

To what
extent do we see Hook Model principles effectively used in some of our more
engaged panels and research communities?

Can
these principles be introduced with minimal risk of biasing sample?

In this
interview with The Research Insighter'the official podcast series of the Future of Consumer Intelligence conference'we'll review:

' The four-step
process for getting someone 'hooked'

' The
roles frequency and perceived utility play

' How
to increase the habit-forming potential of a product or service, and much more'

Listen to the podcast here!

Editor's note: Nir Eyal will present 'Designing Habit-Forming Technology' at The Future of Consumer Intelligence conference taking
place May 19-21 in Universal City, CA.

As a loyal reader of this blog you will SAVE 15% on your registration to attend The Future of Consumer Intelligence when you use code FOCI14BLOG today!

For more information or to
register, please visit www.futureofconsumerintel.com

Want to hear more from Nir Eyal? Check out his blog: NirAndFar.com.