Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

by Nir Eyal

The enemy of forming new habits is past behaviors, and research suggests that old habits die hard. Even when we change our routines, neural pathways remain etched in our brains, ready to be reactivated when we lose focus.13 This presents an especially difficult challenge for product designers trying to create new lines or businesses based on forming new habits. For new behaviors to really take hold, they must occur often. In a recent study at the University College London, researchers followed participants as they attempted to form a habit of flossing their teeth.14 As one of its findings, the study concluded that the more frequently the new behavior occurred, the stronger the habit became. Like flossing, frequent engagement with a product—especially over a short period of time—increases the likelihood of forming new routines. Google Search provides an example of a service built upon a frequent behavior that helped create users’ habits. If you’re skeptical that Google is habit forming (and you are a frequent Google user), just try using Bing. In a head-to-head comparison of the efficacy of an incognito search, the products are nearly identical.15 Even if the geniuses at Google have in fact perfected a faster algorithm, the time saved is imperceptible. So why haven’t more Google users switched to Bing? Habits keep users loyal. If a user is familiar with the Google interface, switching to Bing requires cognitive effort. Although many aspects of Bing are similar to Google, ev...