Structure of this article: The first half talks about how Tik Tok makes users addicted; Output the second half of methodology, and talk about how product managers create a product that makes users addicted.
How does 1.Tik Tok make users addicted?
The book Addiction summarizes under what circumstances users will be willing to use a product again. The core reason is nothing more than three psychological factors:
? 1, "I feel good, try again"-that is, the product is well designed, and users want to use it again after using it once.
? 2. "Almost, try again"-that is, the product creates a situation where users can almost achieve their goals, so that users are unwilling to give up and want to try again.
? 3. "It may be better, try again"-that is, the product gives users a daydream, creates a situation that may have a good result, and gives users an impulse to try again.
Tik Tok products completely capture these three kinds of psychology of users.
First, the user experience of Tik Tok is very good, which makes users "feel good" when using it. Compared with other video software, Tik Tok has the following advantages in user experience design:
? 1, good visual experience: full-screen HD playback mode, no black window and no blur, and excellent user immersion.
? 2. Good listening experience: Tik Tok's product positioning is music short video software, so music is the key element of Tik Tok's products. Most short videos about Tik Tok are accompanied by brainwashing music. I have to say that many songs are popular from Tik Tok, and even KTV has launched Tik Tok Song Zone, which shows that Tik Tok has made great efforts in listening experience.
? 3. Accurate personalized recommendation: From today's headlines to Tik Tok, the products made by ByteDance Company have been doing well in personalized recommendation algorithm, and accurate personalized recommendation is the key factor for Tik Tok's success.
Second, Tik Tok captures the "almost" psychology of users.
The videos on Tik Tok are all relatively short videos. After watching a short video, users will have an inner narration of "one more, it won't take much time". This kind of inner narration will appear after each short video, and it will continue to circulate, making it difficult for users to continue brushing. This kind of psychology of "one more, it won't take much time" is very similar to the "almost" in the addiction principle, which makes use of people's "almost" and "almost" psychology.
Third, Tik Tok also captures the user's "maybe better" psychology.
When users brush Tik Tok, because they can't predict the content of the next short video, they will switch with the mentality that the next short video may be better. The randomness and uncertainty brought by this unpredictability can arouse the excitement of users more than deterministic information, so users will keep brushing.
Fourth, Tik Tok has the following characteristics in addiction.
1. Maintain the user's excitement value: flick to switch to the next video, so that the user's excitement value is always at the highest point. It is also the "volcano video" product of ByteDance Company. To switch to the next video, you need to go back to the main menu, then select your favorite video cover in the video list, and then click on the video to watch. However, in the "back-select-click" operation, Tik Tok adopts a "spoon-feeding" method, which makes the user experience very continuous, leaving users no time to have the idea of "leaving" and making them linger in Tik Tok.
? 2. Let the video uploaders show a more beautiful side: Tik Tok introduced the beauty function of filters and special effects from the beginning, so that the video uploaders can shoot something more beautiful than reality, which is in line with the social psychology that users want to be praised and recognized by others.
? 3. Create a cognitive moment of epiphany: the small videos on Tik Tok are not only funny videos, but also some videos that convey the positive energy of life. When users brush this kind of video, they will have an epiphany moment. Psychological research shows that this cognitive moment of sudden realization is an important moment for users to deepen their impression of products.
Second, how to create products that make users addicted
2. 1 addiction principle
According to the addiction principle introduced in the book Looking for Cool Point, happiness is because some behavior activates the "pleasure circuit" inside the brain, which leads to the release of dopamine in the brain. The released "dopamine" makes people feel happy and easy to be obsessed and addicted. Therefore, in order to make people addicted to the product, it is necessary to make the product activate the "pleasure circuit" inside the brain. David Linden, the author of Looking for Pleasure, shows through experiments that six behaviors, such as information, games, gambling, donation, eating and exercise, will activate the "pleasure circuit" in human brain and release "dopamine", thus making people obsessed and addicted.
Information: including news, gossip, rumors and other information, people are naturally fascinated by these contents.
Games: people can achieve their goals and get pleasure in games, and people are addicted to this pleasure.
Gambling: Uncertain returns can make people feel happy. Once people like this kind of pleasure, it is difficult to extricate themselves.
Donation: Charity can make people feel satisfied, so some people will become addicted to donation.
Eating: When humans eat foods with high fat, high sugar and high calorie, the brain will release a lot of dopamine, and the released "dopamine" will make people feel happy and easily become obsessed and addicted.
Exercise: Exercise can increase the levels of opioid peptides and endogenous cannabinoids in the brain. The increase of opioid peptides and endogenous cannabinoids indirectly activates the brain to release dopamine, which makes people obsessed with addiction.
2.2 three kinds of thinking logic of addiction
Addiction describes three kinds of addictive thinking logic:
1, "I feel good, try again"
2. "Almost, try again."
3. "Maybe it will be fine, try again."
"Feel good, try again": that is, the product is well designed, and the user wants to use it again after using it once. "Feel good, try again" is the simplest addictive thinking logic, and it is also a product design method that all product managers subconsciously understand. A product at least needs to make users feel good when using it, which will bring users the next use and make users addicted. For example, the game must be at least fun to make users addicted; Restaurants, at least delicious, will make users addicted; Information, at least beautiful, will make users addicted. ...
"Almost, try again": that is, the product creates a situation where users can almost achieve their goals, so that users are unwilling to give up and want to try again. "Almost, try again" is widely used in games. In a real shopping mall, every time you play, you grab the doll first, and then throw it away before you get to the hole, so that users have a regret that you almost got the doll. The "almost" principle is also widely used in video games. The once popular WeChat game "Jump" will make users feel pity every time it fails. They almost jumped on the box, almost succeeded. Of course, not only the game, but also the addictive logic of "almost" will be applied in the design of other products. With Pinduoduo's bargaining function, the first knife always cuts off a large part of the price, and then the price becomes smaller and smaller, but each knife gives users a psychological feeling that they can almost get the goods.
"Maybe it will be fine, try again": that is, the product gives users a reverie, creates a situation that may have a good result, and makes users have the impulse to try again. Psychological research shows that people are more fascinated by the return of uncertainty than the return of certainty. Gambling and lottery both take advantage of this psychological feature, so many people are fascinated by it.
2.3 How to create "feel good" products
Feeling good is nothing more than making the product well and making it attractive to users. Daniel Kahneman once mentioned the "peak principle" in Thinking Fast and Slow, that is, when people recall an experience, they will only remember the peak (the best moment or the worst moment) and the final value of the experience. The process of users using products is an experience. The most profound impression of users on the product after use is the peak value and final value during use. Simply put, the best side (or the worst side) of a product determines the user's evaluation of the product. For example, a product, in the process of use, because the phone crashed because of Caton, the product has not reached a more prominent peak, and users will definitely have a particularly bad impression on the product because of Caton; Similarly, if a product is a bit stuck in use, but the product solves the urgent needs of users, users will tend to remember the beautiful side of the product when solving the demand, but forget the product's stuck.
Users' feelings about products come from the peak and ultimate value experience of products. One way to create a "feel good" product is to make more efforts on the peak value and final value of the product. According to the method introduced in Behavior Design: Creating Peak Experience, product managers can create the peak of products in four ways, namely, creating happy event, creating breakthrough cognitive moment, providing glory moment and creating connection moment.
2.3. 1 happy event
Happy event refers to products that exceed expectations, beyond the usual experience. Deliberately creating happy moments can be achieved by improving users' sensory enjoyment, increasing product stimulation and breaking users' thinking mode.
Enhance users' sensory enjoyment: Senses include not only vision, but also hearing, taste, smell and touch, which are collectively called "five senses". Tik Tok products mentioned earlier in this paper provide users with extraordinary visual and auditory enjoyment. It is really difficult for pure online Internet products to work hard on taste, smell and touch, but O2O products can add some thoughts to taste, smell and touch.
Increase product stimulation: increase product stimulation can not be added indiscriminately, but work hard on stimulation that helps improve user efficiency, that is, use pressure to help users improve efficiency. For example, there are many learning softwares at present, which require users to deposit some money first. A few days after punching in, the user can return the money pre-stored at that time, which is to urge the user to work hard with pressure; In the same way, the products are paid by the day to encourage users to read and learn quickly; Reading software encourages users to have a shaped output after learning by writing book reviews, so as to unlock the next book after completing the task.
Breaking the user's mindset: breaking the user's thinking script, breaking the user's expectation and giving the user some unexpected surprises. Using this principle, product design can consider adding random fresh events, eggs or red envelopes to make the product more mysterious, and use people's love for "gambling" to stimulate the brain to secrete more dopamine and make users more addicted.
Cognitive moment
Cognitive moment refers to the moment when people suddenly wake up and realize the truth, which people will deeply remember. For example, people's stereotype is to eat less meat to lose weight, but "Cereal Brain" tells people to eat more meat and eat less carbohydrates to lose weight. This moment that breaks people's original cognition is the cognitive moment, which is particularly easy to remember. There are two ways to deliberately create a cognitive breakthrough moment, using reality to "trip" users and break through their inherent cognition. For the Tik Tok products listed above, when users brush small videos, they often brush a lot of life tips, work encyclopedias and other similar content to enhance their cognition. Some content can really break people's inherent cognition, solve some small problems in life, and have a feeling of "it was ok", which makes users remember the product deeply.
Glory moment
Glory can make others respect themselves more. Respecting needs belongs to the fourth level in Maslow's demand model and is human nature. Human beings are born to enjoy glory and show themselves. Products deliberately create a glorious moment for users, which can gain users' goodwill and make users more addicted to products. Product managers can provide users with brilliant moments, gain recognition, overcome challenges and show courage from three angles.
Gain recognition: let others recognize themselves. Imagine if you were praised by the teacher in public when you were a child, would you be happy? If the product can create a scene of praise, users will naturally be happy. The praise of WeChat friends circle is to use this principle, so users will like to upload content, and then constantly check whether anyone likes or comments. Being recognized can also take advantage of people's natural comparison psychology. Wechat masturbation and jumping games used to be all the rage, and users continued to play them just to rank high in the circle of friends, compare others, show their beauty, and get everyone's recognition and praise. In the book "Biography of Madness", this kind of game is called "Lever Principle", that is, by ranking in social circles, it shows achievements and magnifies people's feelings about achievements, thus making everyone addicted.
Overcoming challenges: people who climb Mount Everest will be particularly excited at the moment they climb Mount Everest. Marathon runners, at the moment they break through the finish line, will be particularly excited because they have overcome the challenge; Gamers, when the game progress bar reaches 100%, will be particularly happy to overcome the challenge ... overcome the joy and satisfaction brought by the challenge. How should product managers use the principle of overcoming the challenge to create addictive products? A key method is to break down goals and create different milestone moments to excite users again and again. Imagine that a gamer has gone through a long time, directly rising from 1 level to 100 level, and there are no milestones of level 2, level 3 and level 4 in the middle, so most gamers will definitely not stick to the end. Since the game can use this milestone feedback to meet the needs of players, other products can also adopt the same method. For example, online education products, without completing a course, the progress bar goes up. After completing dozens of courses, users will get a badge and be assigned a title, which is to urge users to continue to use the product by using the principle of overcoming challenges in glorious moments.
Take courage: people will be particularly excited and happy when they finish something they dare not do. This principle is very similar to the accepted principle. Product managers can use the function of sharing product screenshots to satisfy people's display courage. For example, in the circle of friends, you can often see a friend sharing a screenshot of fitness software after running for many kilometers. The sharer is showing off his courage, and using this principle can also achieve the effect of viral marketing.
2.3.4 connection time
The moment of connection is to create the connection between people, and use the emotion between people to deepen the user's impression of the product. The methods for product managers to design connection moments are: * * sharing the sense of mission, deepening the feelings between users and remembering the precious moments of history.
* * * Have a sense of mission: Design with a sense of mission. Product managers can gather product users into a team, and then give the team a goal to stimulate users' sense of mission. For example, in the 25-person team battle of World of Warcraft, everyone's sense of mission is to defeat BOSS；; The cycling club is in the APP, and everyone's task is to rank the club first.
Deepen feelings: If the product can deepen the feelings of users and others, it can also increase the stickiness of users to a certain extent. For example, Alipay's family number can deepen the feelings between users and their families.
Precious moment: If the product can remind users of good memories, it will definitely deepen users' goodwill towards the product. For example, the "My Story" module in Baidu Cloud will string together historical photos to arouse people's beautiful memories and show people's precious memories.
2.4 How to create "almost" products
"Almost" means that the product creates a situation where users can almost achieve their goals, so that users are unwilling to give up and want to try again. "Almost" has been widely used now, and the principle is easy to understand, but how can product managers create an atmosphere of "almost"? You can constantly create an "almost" atmosphere for users in a difficult way.
Post-difficulty: it is to put the difficulty of the product behind. With the improvement of users' habits and operation level, the difficulty of products is increasing, so that users always feel that they can achieve their goals almost, and they are addicted to products. This principle has been fully applied in the game, and it is very easy for all games to start upgrading, and it is more difficult to upgrade later; The WeChat jump game is particularly simple at first, and the smaller the box, the more difficult it is. The product managers of game manufacturers invariably make the beginning very simple, making it easy for users to get started, and then it becomes more and more difficult, making users addicted to "almost". Internet product managers can also solve problems. For example, the bargaining function of Pinduoduo mentioned above is a particularly good case. Similarly, if you want to design a lottery ticket similar to a slot machine, you can set it to be nervous at the beginning and create an unfinished feeling of "almost winning" at the end.
Shorten the time required for users to get stimulation: when the subway is approaching the station, users will not open the mobile video software to choose a new movie to watch, nor will they open the glory of the king to play a game; When the user finishes a chicken-eating game and finds that there is still 5 minutes of fragmentation time, the user will hardly choose to play another game. When users give up opening a product or continue to use a product, there is a very important reason that there is not enough time. Product managers can shorten the duration of a single product content, replace long videos with short videos, replace long stories with short messages, and replace big games with small games. On the one hand, this design can capture the user's fragmentation time, effectively prevent users from giving up using the product because of lack of time, and on the other hand, it will give users an inner narration of "it won't take much time to do it again" after using the product. With the constant circulation of this inner narrative, it is difficult for users to take the initiative to stop and become addicted.
2.5 How to create "possibly good" products
Random reward: The method of random reward is similar to how to create a happy moment in the "feel good" product in this article. Random reward is also called "variable reward" in Addiction, which means using unpredictable rewards to maintain users' expectations of products and make users feel "probably good".
Xiumei: Taobao's clothing sellers will hire some beautiful models to take photos of clothes, so that users can have an association that "it may look good on me" for the clothes they browse. Beauty is to show the beautiful side of the product to users and let users have a beautiful association with the product. A classic case about delicious food is that Airbnb, B&B's short rent platform, hired professional photographers to enhance the recognition of rooms and increase the order volume. When Airbnb first launched its products, the user growth rate was almost zero. The founder team carefully analyzed the reasons and found that users were reluctant to place orders because the B&B photos taken by the B&B owners could not really show the beauty of the room. Then Airbnb hired a professional photography team to take photos in person, and packed all the landlords' rooms in new york, which greatly increased the orders in new york. It can be seen that Airbnb is a beautiful way to let users produce "maybe good" associations.
2.6 Other references for creating addictive products
Maintain the user's excitement: Just like the design method of Tik Tok described in this paper, Tik Tok uses a gentle and slippery switching method to switch videos, so that the user's excitement is always at the highest point, so that the user has no time to have the idea of "leaving" and makes the user linger on the product. The key point of applying this principle is to keep the product simple, keep the user's excitement value at all times, and prevent the user's excitement value from falling. About the minimalist design method of the product, the author will share it in the subsequent product design, so please pay attention.
Summary: Build a "toolbox" of addictive products.