Thibault Serlet
  • Home
  • Book Reviews
  • Contact

Articles

​

Hooked

4/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
by Nir Eyal
Published in November 2014
256 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 4/5


Hooked is an instruction manual for product designers explaining how to build habit forming products. Nir Eyal does an in-depth study of various successful and addictive technology products ranging from Instagram to Quora to Twitter and many others.


The content of the book is very straightforwardly organized, and easily accessible to a wide audience. The writing is clear and simple. Eyal makes good use of the reader’s time, and manages to compact all the information to its simplest form without losing any clarity. I especially liked the relative shortness of the book, which makes it just the right length.


Average chapters explain a concept, such as variable rewards, then draw on numerous business examples and psychology studies in order to reinforce the concept. For example, the chapter about variable rewards first explains that a fridge where the light turns on every time it is opened is boring. A fridge where a new treat appears at random is very interesting, and would motivate many people to repeatedly open the fridge to see what comes out. He then explains the role of variable rewards in various products such as Instagram which rewards likes asymmetrically or World of Warcraft where players can constantly learn to interact in new ways. Finally, he backs up this example by citing studies where animals were taught to gamble, and where people were put in situations with variable rewards.


The book was highly informative, simple, and straightforward. I recommend it to any entrepreneurs who are building new products.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Thibault Serlet

    Most of my articles are book reviews, but I also write about many other topics.

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Book Reviews
  • Contact