- Welcome to Mind Tools' Video Learning Series. Is there a product or service that you just can't live without? What about your smartphone, your favorite streaming service or your social media account? According to video gaming and advertising expert, Nir Eyal, we enjoy using certain products so much that they've become essential to our everyday lives. Using them has become a habit. In his 2014 book, "Hooked," Eyal outlined a four step process for designing successful habit-forming products. He called this process, the Hook Model. Lets take a look at each step in more detail. The first step is the trigger. This could be external, such as a commercial or a social media post. Or it could be internal, such as a thought, a need or a feeling. For The Hook to work, the trigger must motivate customers to take action and give them the ability to do so. This action should be as simple as possible, a single mouse click, for example. One of the main reasons people respond to a trigger is the prospect of a reward, so don't disappoint. Use variable rewards to build customer loyalty and make the user experience more exciting and engaging. Keep them interested by varying the type of reward you offer. There are three main types of variable reward that you can use. Tribe Rewards are social rewards that involve connecting with others. For example, gaining a particular status in an online gaming community. Hunt Rewards, encourage people to search for and find a reward, like finding the best price on a shopping comparison site for instance. And finally, Self Rewards involve a sense of mastery or a completion. This could mean acquiring a new skill or getting to the next level in a tricky online puzzle game. Now that you've got your customers interested, you need to get them to invest in your product. This could be with their time, for example, by filling in a survey, or it could be with money by making a purchase. Maybe they could provide you with personal information like their email address so that you can send them more relevant offers or information. But remember, don't ask for too much, otherwise you may end up putting them off. To learn more about The Hook Model, see the article that accompanies this video. © 2022 Mind Tools by Emerald Works Limited.