Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Description of the article « Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products »

Why do some apps become part of your daily routine while others are forgotten after a week? In Hooked, Nir Eyal answers with the Hook Model, a four-step cycle behind many habit-forming products.

What you'll learn

The model has four parts. A trigger prompts the user. An action is the simplest thing they do in response. A variable reward keeps them curious. An investment, such as data or effort, makes them more likely to come back. Eyal explains each step with examples from well-known apps, and chapters end with exercises to apply the model to your own product.

He also offers a way to check whether the habit you're designing actually helps users, a question worth taking seriously given how easily these techniques can be misused.

Who it's for

It's most useful for product designers, product managers and founders working on consumer apps that people open often. It's short enough to read in a weekend.

Most examples come from social, media and consumer apps, so it translates less directly to business software. For a chapter-by-chapter overview, read our full review of Hooked.