How to drive users to use our products?

In advertising, marketers reinforce this behavior by linking an action to a reward commitment. They say, "Use our products and you'll get stoned." "In fact, a lot of advertising from soap to Hamburg, with this trick."

But on the web, this "feedback loop" doesn't work. Users are easily distracted by the distractions of the Internet, and the company has found that if they want to continue to mix, they have to get users to "hook up" quickly. Now, those companies are not just enabling "feedback loops", they are using the "desire engine".

"Desire Engine" works like this: it is not only to enhance user behavior, but to create user habits, driving users to act spontaneously, without the need to borrow such as advertising such as external stimuli. In fact, many people are committed to shaping the technology of user habits, the core mechanism is the desire of the engine. Whether it's social media, online gaming, or e-mail, these technologies are using the desire engine to drive users to use them constantly.

Endless Search

The core of the desire engine is actually a powerful cognitive quirk. In the 1850s, B.f Skinner described it as a variable remuneration schedule (a variable schedule of rewards). Skinner found that lab mice were most greedy for random rewards. The mouse presses the lever, sometimes gets a small portion to eat, sometimes has a large portion to eat, and sometimes has nothing. Unlike every mouse who gets the same amount of food at a time, those who receive different rewards each time will involuntarily press the lever.

Humans, like these mice, are naturally pursuing a kind of predictability. We want to find a fixed pattern in all sorts of things, even though there are often no patterns to follow. Change is a bane to brain cognition, and our brain sees the ability to infer based on the causal of things as more important than self-control and moderation principles.

If someone is playing a game and you ask him a question, he will probably answer you "well, whatever you want." "You must have met this situation. Those gamers can promise you almost anything, so just stop bothering him and stop distracting him. The advent of variable pay has kept the brain busy, leaving the brain with a defensive mechanism that provides an opportunity to create new user habits.

But strangely enough, we also think of this trance state as a pleasure. This is because our brains are born in a state where we constantly search for the next reward and never be satisfied. Recent neuroscience studies have shown that our dopamine systems do not work by rewarding our efforts, but by inducing a half tense state, known as desire, to keep searching for the job.

Although sometimes it makes us miserable, it is this mechanism that keeps our species alive. We are the most curious species on the planet, better able to understand and use the surroundings than any species. However, it is such a never-ending, endless search of the impulse to create people on many new technologies addictive behavior.

In fact, there are three forms of variable remuneration, including the pursuit of "tribal" rewards, "hunting" rewards and self rewards. Although a lot of tools have changed compared to more than 2000 years ago, we have the same basic motivation for various rewards.

Tribal Rewards

We are a species that depends on others. Our nerves are evolving to perceive the moods of others, and this compassion for each other allows us to live. We were originally a member of the tribe, so our brains are constantly searching for rewards that allow us to be accepted, to feel important, attractive, and sense of belonging.

From this perspective, it is not surprising that social media have exploded in the past few years. Social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter offer variable social rewards for billions of of users. Each tweet, or write an article, think about how much influence this tweet or this article has. We even use the Klout tool to measure our influence.

Hunting Rewards

Although we are social animals, our individual demand for basic materials is more important. Our need for food and basic necessities of life is part of the brain's operating system. Without such an impulse, we would have perished long ago. In the past we were hunting for food and now we are hunting deals and information.

Our brains used to drive us to search for food, and now it's driving us to constantly open emails from Groupon and Appsumo websites. The new shopping company makes it more interesting for users to hunt for products by introducing variable pay, which keeps users looking forward to the next surprise. Pinterest and Wanelo Web site can allow users to continuously search, is by providing users with a constant supply of a variety of attractive objects, so that users of dopamine constantly flooded, and constantly produce desire.

For examples of hunting rewards, you don't have to look elsewhere to see the 36 Krypton sites. On the website, you can see a list of popular articles. Through a variety of compelling article titles, the list itself uses variable pay mechanisms to drive you to read the next article.

Self reward

And finally, what we call a variable reward for self satisfaction. From birth, the things that excite our senses keep us in control. Those newborn babies put everything in their mouths, and the temptation is the same as Las Vegas's flashing neon lights. We just love the things that excite our senses.

We are also seeking to control the world. Now it's all over the game mechanism, whether it's Zynga's game or the to-do list application that improves business efficiency, is leveraging our need to control, dominate and overcome challenges to build a variable-reward system. The kind of excitement you get from the new emails that you've eliminated from your inbox is the same as your StarCraft.

A powerful combination

Almost all of the techniques mentioned above are used to combine the three variable compensation mechanisms to increase their efficiency in shaping user habits. e-Mail can be addictive because it randomly combines these three variable compensation mechanisms. First of all, we have a certain social obligation to reply to the mail (tribal rewards). Also, an email may contain potential business information and business opportunities (hunting rewards), and finally, our emails seem to require us to dispose of all the unfinished mails, a manifestation of self management (self reward). Interestingly, these motives disappear as the mystery disappears as we open all the emails. However, if there is a variable reward, that is, some of the messages are not viewed, we will automatically see the message.

As B.f. Skinner discovered 50 years ago, variable compensation is a powerful driver in shaping the user's conscious behavior. Now, technology companies are creating new user habits through a series of "Desire Engines". Moreover, variable remuneration triggers a chain reaction. When we understand what is driving our behavior, we are better able to create products that cater to the interests of our users and gain greater control over our own actions.