Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products Hardcover – Illustrated, November 4, 2014

"Hooked" presents a simple, yet very useful model to channel your thoughts when building a product you want to get in the hands of millions. It's quick to read (only 140 pages), to-the-point and made a world of difference to our concept&design challenges. We used it a lot to model the behavior of our users and figure out specific areas we missed and needed to focus on in order to get engagement.Another great value of the book is the in-depth analysis of the hooks we are subject to every day (in Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram etc). As you go around the everyday loop you know so well from the user perspective, you see in a structured way the other side of the coin. The side of the people who know how to design behavior patterns and make others tick.I closed 'Hooked' with a much better understanding of social&scalable products and a lot of interesting ideas for what our team is building. These came from the numerous examples and case studies, as well as the structured questions you can answer at the end of each chapter.If you'd like to learn about habits and how they are built&changed in general, I'd recommend 'The Power of Habit' book by Charles Duhigg. If you want to understand how habits are formed in the world of technology, startups and software and mobile products, "Hooked" is the book for you. It's built on the same solid research base, yet much closer to practice and much more relevant to today's tech world.Thank you Nir Eyal for this amazing book!

The book distills the essence of creating compelling products, in around 200 pages. It is an essential read for product managers and techpreneurs, eager to understand the psychology behind user engagement and retention. The author's methodical approach, backed by real-world examples, illuminates the path to designing products that not only capture attention but also sustain it.Here are some quotable nuggets:- “To initiate action, doing must be easier than thinking.”- “The odds of successfully designing products for a customer you don’t know extremely well are depressingly low.”- “Products that require a high degree of behavior change are doomed to fail.”- “If it can’t be used for evil, it’s not a superpower.”- “The first-to-mind solution wins.”- “Our labor leads to love.”While "Hooked" offers plenty of insights for creating habit-forming products, it also prompts reflection on the ethical dimensions of such designs. It’s rated 4 out of 5 stars, not just for the actionable strategies it offers but also for the thought-provoking discourse it contributes to the field of product design and technology.A must-read for anyone in the tech industry looking to make a mark with their products.

One of the most frustrating experiences for an entrepreneur is to create a helpful product that does not get the hoped-for market acceptance. It does not matter how good a product or service is, if users fail to use it, the product/service will languish.Nir Eyal, author of Hooked – How to Build Habit-Forming Products, provides a scientific based approach to building products that will get used.The approach – the Hook Model – involves four steps:Trigger – there needs to be some stimulus that propels the user to take action.Action – the user must take the action. Here the key is to making the action as simple and as easy as possible. Eliminate as much friction as possible.Variable Reward – humans are a bit strange. If we know the outcome of a particular action, we tend to get bored. When an action results in a variable reward – think a slot machine – we can become addicted to the action.Investment – we tend to value what we have invested in. We need to invest some time, effort and money into the product.Mr. Eyal relies on B J Fogg’s motivational model to explain the requirements for anyone taking action. For those not familiar with Mr. Fogg’s work, this is a good, simple introduction.The book is well written in a conversational style, quite an easy and quick read. In addition to providing the Hook Model, Mr. Eyal gives specific to do steps, discusses the moral implications of misusing the model and gives some excellent suggestions for testing your product/service against the Hook Model.If you are struggling to gain market acceptance, this is an excellent tool to test your product. If you want to save time and money on development, follow the Hook Model.