Why Can’t You Help Clicking It?

According to the statistics, 79 percent of smartphone users will check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up in the morning.A 2011 study by a university found that the average person watches 34 times a day.However, recent figures from the industry have been much higher – almost 150 times.We have to admit, we’re addicted.Faced with this high-tech product, we’re not addicted to it, and we’re at least obsessive-compulsive.We can’t wait to see WeChat, weibo, access to mobile phone taobao, jingdong, was just going to have a crush on for a few minutes, an hour to find their own fingers slide is still on the phone screen page.This desire may be with us all day, but it is seldom perceived.
How exactly is this habit developed?
Why do we habitually open an App?
Why do some products stop us from losing our addiction to other products?
Is there any secret to making users more comfortable with your product?

According to cognitive psychologists, the so-called habit is a kind of “unconscious behavior that is produced in the context of the situation”, which we make almost without thinking about it.These days, the products and services we take for granted are changing our every move, and that’s what the product designers were trying to do.That is to say, our behavior has been designed unconsciously.
How do these companies manage to influence users’ habits and control their thinking with just a few encoded characters on their electronic screens?What are the factors that make people want these products?
Making users develop habits and dependencies is an essential element of many products.Nowadays, more and more enterprises have realized soberly, with only has a huge customer base is not enough to constitute a competitive advantage, the user the product a high degree of dependency is the key to decide its economic value.
So, are you ready to learn more about cultivating positive user habits?And then, looking down, you’re going to get a whole new understanding of the addiction model.

The four stages of the addiction model – trigger, action, variable reward, commitment

Trigger: remind people to take the next step

Triggering is the first stage of the addictive model, which triggers the user to trigger action.There are two types of triggers: external triggers and internal triggers.Let you produce habitual rely on those products are often the external trigger the first to play a role, it is through the information penetration in all aspects of your life to guide you to take the next step, such as email, website links, or the application icon on the phone.
Use an external trigger is just the first step, trigger is the inner core, it through the user memory storage in various association to remind them to take the next step, negative emotions can often act as internal trigger.Develop habits to develop product designers need to consider the user’s psychology, to understand those likely to be internal trigger emotions, and to know how to use external trigger to help users to take action.

Action: the direct response of people when they expect a reward

The trigger is action.If they fail to act, the trigger fails to take effect.Dr Fogg, of Stanford university, argues that to get people to act, three elements are essential: motivation (M), ability (A), triggering (T).I’ll write it in terms of the formula, which is B= MAT.
Triggers remind you to take action, and motivation determines whether you are willing to take action.The motivation for users to use products is based on people’s pursuit of happiness and the avoidance of pain.The pursuit of hope, the avoidance of fear.And because people want to be identified, they hate being rejected.So, as long as your product can give users happiness, hope and identity, it can be the motivation for user action.
With an inner itch (trigger), there is a willingness to tickle, and users can easily “scratch”.The ease of use of the product directly affects the user’s usage of the product.To successfully simplify a product, we have to clear the way for users to use the process.Fogg, summarizes the influence degree of task difficulty of six elements: time required to complete this activity, economic investment, physical, mental, and others on acceptance of this activity, and the degree of match between the activity and routine activities or contradiction.When designing the product, figure out what is preventing the user from completing the activity.Is the user no time, or no money?Is it a busy day and don’t want to think again, or is the product too difficult to operate?To win hearts, you have to make your product easy and easy to navigate.
Therefore, to increase the incidence of preconceived behaviors, the trigger should be obvious, the behavior should be easy to implement, and the motivation should be reasonable.

Changeful reward: satisfy the user’s demand, arouse the desire to use

In the third stage, your product will be able to satisfy users’ needs and arouse their desire to use more.What drives the user to take action is not the reward itself, but the desperate need to be rewarded.The difference between an addiction model and a normal feedback loop is that it can inspire a strong desire for something.The feedback loops around us are not uncommon, but the feedback loops that can be seen in the results do not help to create the inner desire.
The variable reward of “installation” of products is a magic weapon used by the company to attract users.Fundamentally, variable rewards must meet their needs while appealing to users.There is often more than one reward for products or services that can kill users in seconds.Products that don’t have the advantage of being in a variety of variability have to be constantly updated to keep up with The Times.

Social raise reward

The interpersonal rewards obtained through interaction with others.For example, when a friend gets married, he sends out a circle of friends and receives a wave of blessings, which is a social reward.We like our “circle”, enjoy the “likes” of others, and expect “comments” from others.Social rewards can make users crave and expect more.

Prey to reward

Get resources or information.Such as microblogging, microblogging began to attract people, because people as long as the repetition of a “rolling” behavior, can search to the interesting information that oneself like, this is hunting reward mechanism, content variety provides users with unpredictable attractive experience.

Reward yourself

Experience the sense of manipulation, the sense of accomplishment, and the sense of closure.The “upgrade” in the game affects the evaluation of mastery and ability of the self, and the game rules of upgrading and acquiring privileges can satisfy the players’ desire to prove their own strength.Even mundane emails, the number of unread emails in mailboxes are like tasks for many people, a task that needs to be done.
The variable reward is a powerful tool to attract users.Insight into why people habitually rely on products helps designers to design their products well.

Input: through the user’s input to the product, cultivate “repeat customers”

But it’s not enough to get the product to the user’s mind.
A one-night red product often has a good trigger, an easy operation, and a rich social reward.But without the ability to “invest” in a long time, hot style will lose users’ attention over time.
It turns out that the more we invest in things, the more likely we are to think of it as valuable, and the more likely we are to be consistent with our past actions.Finally, we change our preferences to avoid cognitive dissonance.This is the last stage of the addiction model, and it is a stage where users have to invest.The input phase is related to the customer’s expectation of long-term reward, which has nothing to do with timely satisfaction.
When a user provides their personal data and social capital for a product, spending their time, energy, and money is what has happened.In other words, investing doesn’t mean letting users spend money; it means the behavior of the user can improve the quality of subsequent service.Add attention, add to the collection, expand the virtual assets, understand the new product functions, all these are the input that users pay to improve the product experience.These inputs have an effect on the first three stages of the addiction model, and triggers are more likely to form, and action is more likely to occur, and reward is more attractive.
You must say, everything has a routine, then know the routine, how to reverse the pattern?
As a product manager, you can use the addiction model to compare your products:
What do users really need?What pain can your product alleviate?(internal trigger)
What attract users to your product?(external trigger)
What is the simplest operation a user can take when expecting a reward?How do I simplify this operation?(action)
Are users satisfied with the reward, or do they want more reward?(variable reward)
What are the “drips” that users make to your product?Do these inputs help to load the next trigger to improve product quality during use?(input)
If you are a user and learn about these “design patterns”, you can take targeted “anti-design, anti-pattern”.Check your daily actions: what situations do you automatically run on an App?When is the easiest time to swipe your phone?What are the driving forces behind it, to kill time, or to relieve stress?Make a note of it.Find your own behavioral patterns and intrinsic drivers to consciously control your behavior.

文/ 小欧 微信公众号：中欧国际工商学院
本文改编自《上瘾：让用户养成使用习惯的四大产品逻辑》一书