如何利用“上瘾模式”培养死忠用户？

每天都有成千上万的企业在想方设法地抢夺用户有限的注意力。这场“眼球大战”也在科技界掀起了不少噪音。如何才能让用户在一片喧嚣中专注地倾听自己的声音？这几乎是个不可能完成的任务。不过Facebook、谷歌和YouTube的例子也表明，只要企业能打赢这场“眼球大战”，回报将是极其诱人的。

那么，你的产品和服务怎样才能产生足够的吸引力，使它不仅能够抓住消费者的注意力，还能让消费者成为你的死忠粉，继续给你掏更多的钱呢？

连续创业人、作家、行为经济学家尼尔·艾亚尔认为，答案就是所谓的“上瘾模式”。上瘾模式的核心，是要在产品设计中嵌入由触发机制、行为机制、回馈变量和持续投资等因素构成的循环机制，使用户对产品产生“上瘾”倾向。

Instagram就是一个很好的案例，它完美地诠释了这个循环机制。首先，用户要想使用这个社交网络（比如看看好友们的近况），就要建立一个账户。一旦用户注册了账户，网站就会潜移默化地鼓励他们采取一些行为，比如上传和更新照片等等（这是一个相对较快和较为直观的过程）。等他们完成一个行为之后，他们就会得到反馈（比如其他用户的点赞和留言）。重要的是，根据用户发布内容的不同，用户得到的反馈也并不是单一的。最终，用户会更有兴趣打理他们的个人账户，比如添加个人信息，练习P图技巧以及各种花式吸粉。这样一来，这些元素就形成了一个循环机制，吸引用户不断地使用Instagram，最终变成一种日常习惯。

上周三，艾亚尔参加了由Product Hunt网站举办的一场直播访谈，探讨了其他公司如何能够通过“上瘾机制”设计更具有吸引力的产品。

为清晰起见，本文对艾亚尔的发言有删节。

谈习惯的重要性

世界上压根没有“自我”这回事，你只不过是你以往的经历和习惯的聚合体。这种认识让我产生了很多希望和乐观，它也不禁让我问自己：我每天所做的事情真的最符合我的利益吗？或者只是我的某个愚蠢的习惯使然？

谈如何将“上瘾模式”应用到产品设计中

“上瘾模式”仅仅适用于人们习惯性使用的产品。显然并非所有产品都是需要习惯性使用的。有很多我喜欢的产品其实日常生活中很少会用到，因此也就不需要培养习惯。并非每种产品都需要培养用户的习惯，而是每种习惯性产品都需要一种“上瘾机制”。

我几乎每天都能发现，有些企业的商业模式需要用户的自发参与（即习惯），但他们并没有花时间规划“上瘾机制”的四个步骤。出于某些原因，很多企业没有仔细研究用户自发参与的心理动因，便直接跳入了产品设计和编码阶段。这是一个巨大的错误！

谈科技如何能帮我们养成更健康的习惯

我对个人技术在生活中扮演的角色感到十分乐观。在人类历史的任何阶段，当人类面临技术变革时，我们的做法都是适应新技术、应用新技术。现在也是一样。

我们会对自身行为做出调整，以适应新技术的到来，并应用新技术来解决上一代技术遗留的负面影响。

当然，这个过程可能需要一段时间，我们也有必要探讨新技术的成本和收益问题。我认为现在这种现象已经发生了，现在已经有越来越多的人在问，我们能够在什么时候、什么地方采用个人技术，以及用什么方法采用个人技术才是最合适的……个人技术的应用为我们带来了改变旧有习惯的机会，我对此感到非常兴奋。目前我在心理治疗领域已经投资了一家名叫7 Cups的公司，在食品行业也投资了一家叫Pantry的公司，我希望能有更多企业帮助人们养成更加勤俭节约、更加健康生活、更加高效工作的习惯。

谈他为什么不认为“科技上瘾”是一种坏习惯

总体上看，我认为这并不是一个问题。大多数围绕这一问题的讨论都过于夸大其词了。人类是很聪明的，我们虽然很容易被说服，但很难被强迫。这二者之间也有很大的区别。

谈如何回馈用户

对用户的回馈变量不应该仅仅是积分、徽章和点赞什么的。对某种目标和更高价值的追求也是很好的回馈变量！一些组织严密的宗教已经成功地运用这种方法上千年了。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

Every day, thousands of companies compete for users’ limited attention. The war for eyeballs creates a lot of technological noise -- cutting through the din can feel like a near-impossible task. But as Facebook, Google, and YouTube illustrate, the pay off for companies that manage to pull off the feat is enormous.

How, then, do you create a product or service compelling enough not only catch consumers’ attention, but keep them returning for more?

Author, serial entrepreneur, and behavioral economist Nir Eyal has an answer: he calls it the Hook Model. At its core, the Hook Model is designed to build products that create habit-forming behavior in users via a looping cycle that consists of trigger, an action, a variable reward, and continued investment.

Instagram is a good case study -- it fulfills this cycle perfectly. Users are triggered to start an account in order to tap into a pre-existing online social network (i.e., to see what their friends are up to). Once they’ve joined, they’re encouraged to act, in the form of posting photos and updates (a relatively quick and intuitive process). After they’ve accomplished an action, they’re rewarded via likes and comments from other users. Crucially, these rewards vary depending on the post. Finally, users are encouraged to invest in their profiles by adding autobiographical details, honing their filter skills, and collecting new followers. Together, these elements create a loop that keep users coming back, eventually making Instagram a daily habit.

Eyal participated in a live chat on the site Product Hunt on last Wednesday, where he discussed how other companies can use this method to create more engaging products.

Eyal’s responses have been edited for clarity.

On why habits are such a big deal.

T here is no such thing as a ‘self’. You are just a collection of your past experiences and habits. This realization provides me with a great deal of hope and optimism. It also drives me to ask myself whether what I'm doing daily is really in my best interest or just another dumb habit of mind.

On how the Hook Model applies to product design.

The Hook Model is only for products that must be used out of habit. Clearly, not all products need to be used habitually. There are lots of products I love that are infrequently used and therefore don't need habits. It's not that every product needs to be habit-forming, it's that every product that needs a habit needs a Hook.

I see companies (almost daily) with business models that require frequent unprompted engagement (habits) but who haven't taken the time to plan out the four steps of their Hook. For some reason, people tend to jump into designing and coding without stopping to consider the psychological drivers needed to bring people back on their own. This is a huge mistake!

On how technology can help us develop healthier habits.

I'm very optimistic about personal technology's role in our lives. I think we'll do what humans have always done when faced with technological change -- we'll adapt and adopt.

We'll adapt our behaviors to put tech in it's place and adopt new technologies to fix the bad aspects of the last generation of technology.

Of course, this process can take a while and requires us to question the costs and benefits of the new technology. I think we clearly see that happening now as more people ask when, where, and how is the most appropriate way to use personal tech. ... I'm very excited about the opportunity to change habits for good. I've invested in companies like 7 Cups in the psychotherapy space and Pantry in food and I'd love to see more companies form habits to help people save money, live healthier, and work smarter.

On why he doesn’t believe technology addiction is a harmful thing.

Overall I think we're going to be fine. Most of this sort of talk is way overblown. Humans are pretty smart. We're easy to persuade but hard to coerce and there's a big difference between the two.

On how to think about rewarding users.

Variable rewards aren't just points, badges, and likes. Pursuing purpose and higher meaning can be fantastic variable rewards! Organized religions have been using them successfully for millennia.