Mobile apps and internet services are popular, and we should admit that they have a significant role in getting more people to the internet. The internet is great on its own, websites and web applications are awesome, and apps are filling the gaps acting as a bridge towards more mobile device users.
People are getting addicted to the internet. From Google to Facebook, to Twitter and Instagram. Vine, WhatsApp to even games with "gems" on them. They check one app to another, frequently, endlessly. They visit the web often, and even more than they have intended.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others have deep integration into our daily lives. To a limit that they can occupy most of our times when we're accessing the internet and mobile devices.
What they do and what most others company overlooked, is hooking users by creating a habit out of its usage.
Taking Examples
You may have a compelling product that is both great and useful. If you think you failed to get that number of users you've been seeking, taking some examples from popular companies and their strategies may give you some pointers.
What makes popular services so addictive is that they're able to be part of our lives; they're giving their thing and doing it at their best. But what comes to matter here is that they're able to give users the influence so people will use them more.
Below is the four main reasons that made them this way:
Creating the Trigger
Most popular services has that "cue" that triggers users to automatically perform a certain action. While they're already popular, triggering a cue makes users remember their services most of the time. As examples for the most common triggers: push notification, emails, newsletter, paid advertisement.
While those are external triggers that should "notify" users about certain new things, as well as trigger human emotions. Facebook, Twitter and social media networks are good examples with their ability to become the place where users can satisfy their curiosity, keep up with friends, helping them in their spare times, breaking discomfort or occupy them whey they're lonely.
Having Ways for Action
When users are notified about certain things, popular services can deliver the said information straight to their user quickly without much of a problem. Each for their actions are the result of the "trigger", and the action is giving users the tension to perform even further actions.
For example, a notification about a friend's birthday is delivered. When the user performs the action based on that trigger, Facebook gives the user the ability to congratulate the friend.
The flow is initiating a behavior is tracked and anticipated. When the user is having enough motivation and ability to complete the said action, the behavior is exactly what Facebook wants.
Giving Rewards
This is the most common way for popular services to make users do a lot more than they have in mind. People like being rewarded because it somehow benefits them, directly on indirectly. The rewards are given when users do specific actions, like for example creating great posts that people want. With a social media's massive reach, they're expecting people to view it, Like it, "heart" it, or just view it.
Those actions, will make the creator of the post "happy". This is the reward. The feeling comes from attention, being accepted, feeling important, having a sense of competency, etc..
Rewards excite people and are addictive. This is one the reasons why people are doing them repetitively in a particular loop.
Providing Anticipation
When users post a great post, they're expecting rewards. When people are expecting something, they'll become rather "impatient"; making them come back for more, even when they don't have to (they could be notified by the trigger).
The anticipation is a long-term. A post that is still available (not deleted or hidden), will provide a value to the user and they act like investments. Likes and others can go to any of their posts, and that keep them on their toes, anticipating the rush of "happiness".
Creating The Habit
Old habit dies hard, and this is what those popular have as their "common" secret. If they can be useful and influential, people will get addicted to them. And once they do, they'll have a new habit which would be difficult for them to resist.
Popular internet services and their apps which act more or less, like the representative of their web interface, have numerous unique features that stand out. That influences people to do certain tasks on their services. Since the flow is predicted, they can re-create such experience over and over again.
While the rewards await, the journey to the goal is just around the corner. People are making themselves fall to the habit.
A Unique Interface as a Journey
Every internet services and their apps have their own user-interface. While they may have similar trigger, action and design, their purpose is never the same. The purpose is what makes them unique, making them able to target the user they want.
To build a habit-forming product, those popular services understand the flow like no others. They map all touch-points from all interactions to understand the best place for the call-to-action. Here they can further evaluate their existing ideas so the feature can be a habit-forming for its users. The journey towards the goal is all inside its interface, tailored toward taking all users in the direction they want.
Making "Trademarks"
When habit is formed, users are already familiar with what a service has to offer. Popular services tend to adopt new trigger to cue different action. But when they see a flow where they're expecting; and people are liking it as well, the feature and the design are seen as their trademarks.
While they may redesign their interface to meet more modern trends, what they do is keeping the cues and rewards as similar as possible, Old habits die hard, and making users to re-learn may damage their brand names and their products.
Analyzing and Testing
A product that is great, began its life from thorough research and many passed tests. Before being exposed to the wild, a product need to be reviewed, and the best thing to do is to analyze the effects of any new changes using both qualitative and quantitative tools.
This is to ensure the road that users use on their journey is aiming to the direction the company wants.
When a change is necessary for whatever reasons, you need to keep the changes small. If there should be a lot of changes to happen, break the updates into several parts. With more time, users can have more time to learn about the new features/UX design. Their habit will change without them knowing it.
Reduce the impact of change by changing only small things at any one time. Using A/B testing tools can ease this process.
After the update has been released, analytics tools are the next that comes to play. This will make an insight about how users are moving along their journey. Are they going to the right direction? Analytics tools can answer this question.
Habit To Reveal The Hidden
A great product is a great product. But it could be performing a lot less than it has to be when it doesn't have the "emotional attachment" to make it a habit. Habit-forming techniques are common to build products that "hook users", making them regularly return for more.
An ordinary product on the other hand, is an ordinary product. With extensive marketing, they too can become great. But to make people come without effort, it needs to be viral. And making the ordinary product have the ability to perform a habit on its users, they too can become greater.
Creating habit-forming products can reveal hidden potentials that are often overlooked by many.