Join 150k+ Subscribers
Variable Rewards: Want To Hook Users? Drive Them Crazy

Variable Rewards: Want To Hook Users? Drive Them Crazy

Here’s the gist:
    • Rather than using conventional feedback loops, companies today are employing a new, stronger habit-forming mechanism to hook users—the Hooked Model.
    • At the heart of the Hooked Model is a variable schedule of rewards: a powerful hack that focuses attention, provides pleasure, and infatuates the mind.
    • Our search for variable rewards is about an endless desire for three types of rewards: those of the tribe, the hunt and the self.
(more…)
The Hooked Model: How to Manufacture Desire in 4 Steps

The Hooked Model: How to Manufacture Desire in 4 Steps

Type the name of almost any successful consumer web company into your search bar and add the word “addict” after it. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Try “Facebook addict” or “Twitter addict” or even “Pinterest addict” and you’ll soon get a slew of results from hooked users and observers deriding the narcotic-like properties of these web sites. How is it that these companies, producing little more than bits of code displayed on a screen, can seemingly control users’ minds? Why are these sites so engaging and what does their power mean for the future of the web?

The Hooked Model

We’re on the precipice of a new era of the web. As infinite distractions compete for our attention, companies are learning to master new tactics (more…)