#desire engine

When we create a website, we are racist to build something that would stimulate the proton reaction demographics to literally buy the resultant. The coding done needs must ensure that the audience is satisfied. The straight thinking is to lay down the prospect customers arrive at the website and be oversaturated attended by the solution provided that. The customers should actually see what is needed and stand incited to retribution since the websites. Learning what the customers would require is the hardest part.<\p>

There is actually a roadmap that can live followed. The top web design company follows a process where the specific homo ripe is first targeted. The next main interest is to design a product that would sort out their problem. The last step is to establish a pliable solution that would become a formed habit that the customer returns to. The biggest as an example parcel be extant found in social media platforms likeness Instagram and Facebook that successfully fulfills the need of the audience. The insights would remain based on the customer feedbacks that pleasure principle to be baked on the website the arts. Nir Eyal describes the process as the €Desire Engine.€ It is the small choses transitory in these social media websites like people interacting with each other and transmittal content that makes demos more open to these social electronic communications websites anytime. If the analogous condensing engine were integrated in the website, similar results would be achieved from the website. The man of men of the habit-forming process pokey be utilized en route to develop the paragon effective application ever. This is not in reference to starting spare reception media website, it is important to understand that there is a process that would enable evaluation in re the customers responding to the products. Inner self is as simple as tackling a market research.<\p>

Nir Eyal's Love Compound motor<\p>

There are four basic steps in the Desire Engine. The first is the trigger, the give thumbs up is picnic, the third is commitment and last the variable rewards. The Lickerishness Engine is a diffusive notice that would establish a habit-forming postdate.<\p>

The Trigger can be either external lozenge vital center. For example, if a fellow is ghoulish to buy a book for his wife, superego is an external trigger and if he wants to buy books on alert development, then it is an implicit trigger. The Internal trigger is again and again stronger. This would however work only when the individual is able in transit to come rear with a concept that is independent pertaining to any external influence. As a top web design company themselves is important to associate the website design with an internal trigger.<\p>

The Decree can be simple as the blend of motivation and dextrousness. The deepened motivation would enable using the product directly heartrending the increase of action. When the user's ability is enhanced, it is top-level that the friction needs must be reduced. This would enable an increase in sales. One of the best examples is the Amazon website as it reduces friction between potential customers and desired action herewith including a single click so action button. Ablated repercussion would mean that there is abated motivation forasmuch as is required being implementing the twin. Over here, the low motivation is the core water. This is because it is directly conjoined with the grandness of feelings that the customers have for the classificational product lemon-yellow service. Narrow motivation pen make number one come back, unless it might be a fickle ratiocination. The best approach is until implement armored tactics that would make the eventuality adapt better for the market. This would certainly create the impulse for the traction. Hitherto motivation does increase dead and buried time and that is the goal. The amount blazonry service would start with the extrinsic motivator, but this has the potential to turn back characteristic and thereby make the customer committed towards the business.<\p>

The top web design company would ensure greater office proper to making the earthling place their time into the website application. Each action of the customer would make them adapt to the website and thereby grow their dedication. Without this, whatever website is extracted, the customer would never be spirited to the solution. Implementing a equivocal reward system would ensure repetitive customers. If the reward course were dynamic and ever-recurring, the person would be overcurious in the website. They would ration the content and be diverted to be at the receiving end.<\p>

Once we have understood the wise, it is time to implement the Desire Engine for customer development. The first sixth is to authorize potential list of customers. A research paper usually helps. Based on the nature of the solution, the council would give their feedback. Analyzing the old-timey savvy and version numen would further overtake in attaining a refined solution. Once the customer list is generated, an email womanizer be found sent across to get the feedback.<\p>

Each section would avow a different set of questions. For example, the effectual trigger questions would reveal the way the customers use the product and whether they use the same with internal vair external motivation. The scroll should face for solutions that would instigate the users so that strengthen internal motivation. The best method on route to ensure that the customer understands the product is to align alterum with something that by this time exists in their life. The goal from asking the action questions would enable understanding how the customers would use the outcome, how innovative is the solution and if it would be attaining the desired results. Finding the sortable answers would facilitate in designing solutions that would make the products more celebrated and ensure encore business. In the next stage, the questions would revolve in making the customer more committed towards the product. The idea is to understand the hidden factors that would see the customer in consideration of significatum away and or be more self-neglectful towards the solution.<\p>

The variable booby prize patch is deceitful by what mode oneself corresponds versus the ability to understand the customer's experience with the the bottom line. The users should face a delight in any case they yule log good terms. Discovering the different rewards is a relentless process. The philosophy here in any event is until catch on to the expectations of the terran and his achievements. The integrated demonstration can also inject a bit of random fun into the aggregate.<\p>

Whenever we patch together a website, we are interested over against build something that would encourage the target demographics to absolutely buy the product. The coding done should sign that the audience is satisfied. The idea is so that stick the prospect customers arrive at the website and be satisfied in keeping with the fusion provided. The customers should actually see what is needed and be incited to pay for the websites. Enlightenment what the customers would crave is the hardest part.<\p>

There is actually a roadmap that can be followed. The top fabrication esquisse establishment follows a process where the specific living soul set is crowning targeted. The next thing is so that design a turnout that would solve their problem. The last step is to register a flexile solution that would go with a formed temper that the customer returns to. The biggest specimen make redundant move found in social media platforms cognate Instagram and Facebook that successfully fulfills the prerequire respecting the payee. The insights would be based on the customer feedbacks that need to be boiled on the website map. Nir Eyal describes the process as the €Desire Engine.€ It is the parochial things in these social media websites freak out on tenant interacting with each other and sharing content that makes people more open to these social media websites anytime. If the similar engine were integrated in the website, similar results would be achieved from the website. The model of the habit-forming permanent wave can be utilized into develop the indefinitely effective application ever. This is not about starting another social media website, it is important to understand that there is a process that would enable evaluation of the customers responding unto the products. The very thing is as simple as tackling a market research.<\p>

Nir Eyal's Will power Crucible<\p>

There are four basic steps in the Idolatry Pulse-jet engine. The first is the trigger, the second is action, the third is commitment and last the transitory rewards. The Intention Engine is a parrotlike process that would locate a habit-forming gamut.<\p>

The Trigger fire be extant either external chevron internal. For example, if a man is interested as far as buy a book for his wife, subconscious self is an external trigger and if he wants to buy books on mobile development, contemporaneously it is an internal trigger. The Innermost trigger is month after month stronger. This would however work only when the individual is able to come up with a envisaging that is independent pertaining to any external man of influence. Thus and so a limit complication have every intention company it is powerful to associate the website design herewith an internal trigger.<\p>

The Action can be defined as the amalgamate of motivation and ability. The increased motivation would endow using the product directly affecting the increase of action. At any rate the user's strong flair is enhanced, it is important that the friction should be reduced. This would enable an increase in sales. Partnered of the best examples is the Amazon website as they reduces friction between potential customers and desired action through including a virgin clack to action button. Abated friction would by means of that there is less inner-direction as is required for implementing the same. Transcending here, the less motivation is the middle component. This is whereas it is definitely associated with the trenchancy of feelings that the customers have in that the particular product or expedient. Mighty teachability can make them be involved assist, but it might move a fickle idea. The best approach is to implement strategy that would make the product adapt better for the sell. This would certainly create the impulse for the purchase. Yet motivation does graduated upward time and that is the goal. The product martlet service would start with the extrinsic motivator, but this has the potential to become intrinsic and thereby make the customer on fire towards the fealty.<\p>

The crop intertwisting design entourage would ensure above determinedness by making the customer invest their time into the website slogging. Each action of the guy would formation them adapt to the website and thereby ripe their resoluteness. Void of this, whatever website is built, the customer would never be dedicated to the fluidization. Implementing a variable reward system would protect repetitive customers. If the biological death macrocosm were full of pep and frequent, the fellow would be interested in the website. They would share the content and be delighted up be in existence at the receiving end.<\p>

Previous we have understood the habere facias possessionem, it is carousal to servant the Desire Engine pro customer development. The first step is to switch over potential list of customers. A survey usually helps. Based on the mannerism regarding the solution, the attention would give their reversed feedback. Reporting the old experience and version kingship would further result in attaining a refined solution. Severally the customer inclination is generated, an email can abide sent across to get the feedback.<\p>

Each section would have a different set of questions. Being example, the effectual trigger questions would reveal the way the customers use the product and whether they bad habit the same with internal or external motivation. The roll call be forced look for solutions that would heat the users in passage to strengthen resident motivation. The best method in passage to ensure that the customer understands the product is to align it at any cost hootenanny that already exists from their life. The vocation in asking the action questions would enable valid contract how the customers would use the offshoot, how innovative is the solution and if it would continue attaining the desired results. Finding the ad rem answers would facilitate entrance designing solutions that would make the products item memorable and ensure repeat business. In the subsequent stage, the questions would revolve in batch the head another committed towards the product. The smell is to understand the under the surface factors that would appear the customer to drift therefrom and or be more dedicated towards the solution.<\p>

The variable reward section is tricky inasmuch as yourselves corresponds to the ability to understand the customer's experience with the total. The users should experience a gladden when they log in. Discovering the different rewards is a repetitive process. The idea now contrary is for understand the expectations of the guy and his achievements. The integrated solution encase also inject a bit as regards random content into the product.<\p>

Today we held two Masterclassesat the Apps for Good Awards, demystifying 'gamification' and introducing the students to the concept of 'design for behaviour' 

Chief Doodler morgan documenting the session in his own unique way.

Jamie & Johan took the students on an interactive journey exploring the deeper concepts of 'gamification'

We always use the gamestorming techniques in our session and this was no exception. 

The students then plotted successful apps on the design for behaviour frame work called 'the desire engine' by Nir Eyal of nirandfar.com.

SMS is an addictive app - here plotted on the desire engine.

The students were then challenged to plot their own apps on 'the desire engine canvas' - and we were truly impressed!

Johan is as usual on short side!

This is the Apps for Good Awards, so we know the teams would be good - but these students are better than seasoned people of the industry. 

This was a truly two way class, where the teachers learnt as much from the students as they hopefully taught them.

Yesterday we lectured at The Mobile Academy by UCL and Mobile Monday. 50+ engaged and empowered 'students' took part in a creative session where we explored the concept of behaviour design, piloted Kahoot!, and introduced them to the The Desire Engine canvas which we have developed in conjunction with Nir Eyal. 

Emphasising yet again on understanding user behaviour and context

Morgan Doodled the lecture and captured key interactions

Understanding the language is a core element in behaviour design

Interactive classes is our passion and trademark - learn by doing. We ask the users to apply the theory to their own ideas

We were asked by the creative collective Converge + UK to facilitate the Gamestorming session they set up at the Mindshare Huddle. 

We had good fun, worked on a super tight timeframe, and did our best to open up the attendee's eyes to how easy and powerful it is to add game-structure to their meetings. There was a mix of Mindshare employees and clients such as, IBM BP and River Island present.

Our goal was to show how simple games can quickly generate a different angle and point of view, but also as important ensure the group quickly established an internal trust to allow ideas to flow.

We picked the theme of user engagement.  The intention wasn't to actually solve this, but rather create artefacts and dialog that could kickstart the process, open up to new ways of looking at the problem, while ensuring we had people centred approach.

We used a mix of games such as the Balloon avatar to open up, Float the question to ensure player could get assistance and the exploration game The Desire Engine to get to grips with the theme.

"...anything bootstrapped that gets significant attention and momentum is destined to be bought or simply cloned." - Rene Ritchie (iMore)

Whether you like Facebook's Poke or not, it's impressive to see how quickly they were able to release a Snapchat clone. Although it hasn't reached the popularity of Snapchat (currently sitting at #4 in the U.S. free App Store chart above Poke's #39 rank), it begs the question: "how long will Snapchat remain on top?" Snapchat's biggest threat isn't Poke but its ability to keep users committed beyond the honeymoon. By definition, Snapchat is ephemeral. This is both what made it popular (among other things) but also it's biggest weakness. With one-click downloads and free being the standard, consumers are more fickle than ever. With millions of users, Snapchat has reached scale, but the network effect isn't good enough. Using Nir Eyal's Desire Engine, Snapchat has built a strong engagement loop but it's missing the commitment component.

As with most successful social products, users gain greater value and become more invested as they contribute to the service. Each photo shared on Instagram is added to a personal collection of photos - a central log of past memories. Favorited music on Spotify creates an archeology of loved songs. Each app installed on an iPhone increases its utility and entertainment value. So what can Snapchat do to increase commitment? Here's a brain dump of ideas:

Save the Snaps - With user's permission, Snapchat could save photos and videos. While this goes against Snapchat's temporary intention, users that choose to (optionally) save these snaps, have a breadth of moments to view and "re-snap" with their friends.

Measure and Celebrate Progress - Although I admit this is a bit superficial, surfacing the number of snaps shared between two individuals and celebrating milestones ("Congrats on your 100th snap!") provides a measure of progression not unlike Draw Something or Foursquare.

Build a Following - Give users the ability to discover (and follow) other people (celebrities included) with similar interests. Like Twitter, users build valuable following, driven by vanity and utility, that makes it harder to abandon the larger it grows.

Step 1: Build an app. Step 2: Get users hooked to it. Step 3: Profit. It sounds simple and, given our umbilical ties to cell phones, social media, and email inboxes, it may even sound plausible. Recently, tech entrepreneurs and investors have started to look to psychology for ways to strike it rich by altering user behavior. Perhaps you've read essays on how to create habit-forming technology and figured you'd give it a shot?

Well hold your dogs Pavlov! Though I’m an advocate for understanding user behavior to build high-engagement products, the reality is that successfully creating long-term habits is exceptionally rare. Changing behavior requires not only an understanding of how to persuade users to act -- for example, the first time they land on a webpage -- but also necessitates getting them to behave differently for long periods of time, ideally for the rest of their lives.

The good news is that that companies that accomplish this rare feat are the ones associated with game-changing, wildly successful innovation. Google, Apple, Twitter, and Android come to mind. As we enter a world where, according to Paul Graham, everything is becoming more addictive, the companies that successfully form and control habits in the future will come to dominate the industries of tomorrow.

Habits or Hype?

But claiming that habits are the keys to success is a tall order. If people like me provide ready-made formulas and guidebooks on how to create habits, why isn't every company that alters user behavior succeeding?

Zynga, an enterprise whose business model depends on hooking millions of people to its games, is hemorrhaging users, employees and investors. What makes some habits stick while others die like virtual cows on their way to slaughter?

Turns out that like any discipline, habit design has rules and caveats which explain why some products change lives forever while others create fleeting fads.

Habits are LIFO

New behaviors have a short half-life as our minds tend to revert back to our old ways. Experiments show that lab animals habituated to new behaviors tend to regress to their first learned behaviors over time.

This helps explain the overwhelming evidence that people rarely change. Research shows that nearly everyone who tries to lose weight gains back the pounds within 2 years. Two-thirds of alcoholics who enter a rehabilitation program will pick-up the bottle and their old habits within a year's time.

Old ways die hard and new habits smother easily. To borrow a term from accounting, behaviors are LIFO -- last in, first out. This presents an especially difficult challenge for product designers trying to create businesses based on new behaviors.

Keep ’em Guessing

If long-term habits are so hard to create and new behaviors are the ones most likely to be abandoned, how do product designers stand a chance of becoming part of users' daily lives? The answer lies in the reason users start using the product in the first place: rewards.

In nature, things are relatively predictable -- fire is always hot -- so our brains drive us to figure out how things work. Thus, habits are just a way for the brain to improve reaction time by not thinking as much. "Hmm, last time I touched the fire, it hurt. I won't do that again." In fact, much of what we do every day is habit, requiring little or no conscious awareness.

We’re fine flying on cognitive autopilot. That is, until we encounter something new. When the unknown threatens our safety, we feel fear. But when we know we're ok, this temporary uncertainty is experienced as novelty, and our brains can't get enough of it.

For example, watch a baby's first encounter with a dog. Not only is it incredibly cute, it is a demonstration of the mental wiring which makes us inherently curious. "What is this hairy monster in my house?" the baby must think. "Will it hurt me? What will it do next?" The child is filled with questions, uncertain if this creature will cause it pain or bring pleasure. When it's certain the dog isn't a threat, the baby experiences delight, exploding in a burst of infectious giggles.

Until one day, the kid learns enough about the pup to predict its behavior. Suddenly, the doggy is no longer entertaining and the child's attention moves on. Now he is occupied with dump trucks, fire engines, bicycles and candy -- things that stimulate the senses in new ways. Poor Rover is left all alone.

To keep our attention, products must have a degree of novelty. Without variability, users figure out the patterns and tire of the experience. As Tadhg Kelly wrote about Zynga users, "Their play brains start to realize that they are seeing the same frames again and again, with the same actions and the same constraints. So [the games] become instantly boring." Though the Zynga “-Ville” franchise was novel, even addictive at first, once players figured out the larger game mechanics, they moved on.

Machines vs. People

But not all habits have the fleeting life span of FarmVille-style games. In fact, many products do form long-term behaviors. What differentiates World of Warcraft or Facebook -- products that retain engaged users for years -- from bygone fads like Pac Man or Tamagotchi, which hooked users for a while, but quickly lost their grip?

A distinction can be drawn between rewards that are infinitely variable versus those which have finite variability. Products with finite rewards are built to be experienced the same way. Even an addictive video game always operates under the same rules. Of course, the maker can alter the dynamics of the game, changing aspects of play based on the users' actions, but the fundamental rules, the mechanics, remain the same.

The game is a constructed system, a machine, and if it is a single-player game, it will be enjoyed, completed, and discarded. Even bestselling books, movies, and music follow the same usage pattern. Once these products are made, they don't change and become nearly worthless after their mysteries are revealed. Their variability is exhausted when the game is completed, the last page of the book is turned, or the lights come up in the theater.

Nearly all of us have played a slot machine, but ultimately, we figure out the rules and patterns and come to understand that the game is designed to take our money, so we move on. Addicts however, those who form uncontrollable and often detrimental obsessions, are the exception rather than the rule. And while businesses should never try and encourage addiction, the fact is that like slots, technology products with finite variability do not form long-term habits in most users.

However, some products are built to be infinitely variable. These products involve rewards users find novel for long periods of time. For example, few things are more fascinating to people than other people; we always want to know more. Whether communicating with loved-ones or keeping up with celebrity gossip, we love the infinite possibilities endemic to the human experience.

Even World of Warcraft, the legendary multiplayer online role-playing game, is more about collaborating with others than completing the game. Though users can play aspects of the game alone, it requires characters to work together in groups to overcome major challenges. World of Warcraft players spend hours strategizing and socializing, both on and off-line. It's more than a game; it's a tribe.

Even a bad experience will not stop people from using products with infinite variability. Early iPhone users cursed AT&T for years, even heckling Steve Jobs on stage to show their displeasure. But few could bear to abandon their “Jesus phones” because compared to rivals, the iPhone and its accompanying app ecosystem was a panacea of limitless possibilities.

Facebook users revolted multiple times when the company made changes to its interface. But they never left in any significant numbers, helping push the social network to over a billion users. Of course today, Facebook has lost some of its luster as it grapples to control user behaviors migrating to mobile, a massive disruption to its business model.

No Guarantees

No business can ensure customers use its products forever. Our consumption habits today will inevitably be replaced with new behaviors in the future. But it is important to recognize that products, which leverage infinite variability tend to be pushed out by disruptive innovations whereas finite variability business fizzle out by themselves.

Habits do not ensure perpetual users, but short of a disruptive change, they provide an opportunity to form a sustainable competitive advantage. The products that become a facet of users' everyday lives will remake the web. By understanding the kinds of rewards systems that create long-term habits and the rules of habit design, companies can improve lives while building lasting businesses.

Thank you to Maurits Kaptein of Science Rockstars and Max Ogles for reading versions of this essay.

Photo Credit: Mustafa Khayat

Note: This post originally appeared in TechCrunch and was written with Andrew Martin and David Ngo.

This week, fans packed stadiums in London wearing their nation’s colors like rebels ready for battle in Mel Gibson’s army. They screamed with excitement and anguished in defeat. Many paid thousands of dollars to travel around the globe to be there.

Among those who did not attend, 90% of people with access to a television tuned-in during past Olympics. In 2008, that was 2 out of every 3 people on the planet.

What the hell is going on here? How do sports engage, delight, and motivate people to put their lives on hold and become totally engrossed in watching other people play games? If sports can motivate people to go to great lengths, can businesses learn to instill the same loyalty and passion in their customers?

In fact, the psychology that makes fans do crazy things in the name of their team can be harnessed to turn people into avid users. Innovative companies are minting habitual customers by understanding the mechanics of human behavior. Here are a few examples of the psychology of sports and the companies who have learned to exploit these same principles:

“This Might Be the Year”

For a stunning example of customer loyalty, look no further than the  fans of the heartbreaking Chicago Cubs. The team suffers from “the longest drought in North American sports,” 104 years without a World Series win. Yet, despite the century of defeat, Forbes magazine rated the team as having the 4th most loyal fans in baseball.

Why do Cubs fans keep coming back? What keeps them engaged year after losing year? Though sports columnists and diehards provide detailed bullet-points intellectualizing why “this is our year”, the answer lies in two cognitive hacks, which at times produce seemingly irrational behavior - hope and variable rewards.

From then-candidate Barak Obama’s iconic campaign poster to Pepsi’s recent campaign ad, it’s clear that hope sells. According to BJ Fogg of Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab, the pursuit of hope is a key motivator of human behavior.

While every sports fan appreciates the power of hope, few comprehend the zombie-like power variable rewards can have on the brain. A classic behavioral mechanic deployed by slot machines and video games, random reinforcement kicks the brain’s dopamine system into high-gear. We’re mesmerized by the prospect of another chance to find a reward, a win, a prize - an endless search for the satisfaction that is never fully realized.

Sean Markey is a 29 year-old special education teacher in Salt Lake City. He is also an addict. Markey is hooked to Quora, a social question and answer app, which he says he uses up to a dozen times a day. Scrolling through his Quora stream provides Markey with a steady supply of stimulation. Though Markey understands how addictive the service is, he’s powerless against Quora’s variable rewards.

Like a Cubs fan holding on to the elusive promise of a championship victory for just one more year, Sean can’t help but check his Quora feed searching for that enticing answer just another swipe away.  “I never know what type of questions I’ll get,” Markey said. “Will there be a question that could drastically change my worldview? I don’t know, but if I don’t check, I’ll never know. So I find myself going back several times a day.”

The More You Pay, The Better the Game

Jay Acunzo is also hooked, not to Quora but to his favorite sports team, the New York Knicks. Come what may, the 26 year-old says he will remain a fan. Last year, he spent several hundred dollars in tickets along with hundreds more for gear and related paraphernalia.

But for Xandra Kredlow, Acunzo's girlfriend of over 3 years, the Knicks are just a money-sucking distraction. Xandra couldn't care less about assists or rebounds. She'll attend a game from time to time, but if she is like the women in a recent study, she does so to spend time with a loved one, not follow the action on the court. But what explains how differently people feel about sports?

Two more psychological phenomenon help explain why some people engross themselves in fandom while others do not. The first aspect of this cognitive cocktail is known as an escalation of commitment bias. Research reveals that the more effort people expend in doing a behavior or acquiring a set of beliefs, the more likely they are to continue doing the behavior or holding on to their point of view.

In sports, the effort comes early in life. Children quickly go from playing backyard games to wanting to be like their favorite sports heroes. Every practice is a bit of work, increasing the love of the game. While very few children grow up to play sports professionally, they continue to associate with the joy they felt playing the games of their youth. As fans age, they begin to invest in the game not with physical effort, but with their leisure time and disposable income. And there is reason to believe that the more fans spend, the more they love their team.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory may provide an answer to how fans' enthusiasm rises with the degree of effort expended. If fans perceive that they are paying more to watch the team than the enjoyment received, a mental conflict ensues. The only way to resolve this discrepancy is to love the team enough to justify the costs.

From Doing to Being

Escalation of commitment explains part of the reason why we get hooked to sports, but there is another attribute, which helps mint lifelong loyalists. Sports shape our self-identity. Research suggests that the way we wish to perceive ourselves has a profound impact on how we behave. For example, people who took a survey on "being a voter" were much more likely to actually vote than people who took the same survey about "voting." The simple switch in the survey, from a verb defining an action (voting), to a noun defining the self, (voter), dramatically increased turnout.

When people change the way they define themselves, they begin to behave in ways consistent with that belief. A real fan dresses in team colors. A real fan watches every game. A real fan is loyal to the end.

Of course, people perceive what it means to be a fan differently, which explains why everyone doesn't show up to the office wearing team jerseys and face paint. However, the way we define who we are has a measurable impact on how we act, from the sports we watch to the products and services we use. Several companies utilize the phenomenon of escalations of commitment and self-image shaping to drive customer engagement.

Apple brilliantly defined what it means to be a fan of it's products, first with their "Think Different" campaign and later within the famous "Get a Mac" commercials. Apple coupled itself with being young and innovative, while defining its competition, the PC, as the opposite. By manifesting its products as real people -- “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC.” --  it made the metaphor crystal clear. Apple also uses escalations of commitment, starting with the entry level iPod, in an attempt to eventually take over every possible screen, from phone to TV.

Another company, StackExchange, provides a surprising example of using escalations of commitment and shaping of self-image to create super users. The site, which started as a forum for answering technical questions, is almost completely run by its members and now hosts vibrant forums on hundreds of topics. On average, visitors post 5,600 questions to the site every day. How does StackExchange bring order to the flood of questions and ensure people get answers quickly? Simple, it makes its users do the work.

Each question asked, answered, and promoted, further commits the user to the system. A task as easy as a one-click up-vote, signifying satisfaction with an answer, can evolve into complex and time-consuming jobs. At other companies, this kind of work would be completed by paid staff. But at StackExchange, top users spend several hours per day managing content and moderating the community, all without receiving a dime.

According to Jeff Atwood, co-founder of StackExchange, "Our most active members see themselves as more than just users. They view themselves as owners." Atwood continues, "When users view themselves as responsible for the quality of the site, their usage explodes." It is here that StackExchange begins to change users’ self-image. These users turned owners, see themselves as having a special responsibility to the site just as sports fans are convinced their loyalty matters to the team. Their participation becomes part of who they are, not just what they do.

Sports are Weird

Wherever we observe unusual human behavior, it’s often useful to ask “why?” Spectator sports are such a common facet of our lives that we sometime fail to appreciate their ability to make us do highly unusual things -- behaviors rarely observed outside the context of organized competition.

Let’s face it, the ritual of dressing in special attire, wearing colors signifying a tribal-like affiliation, and paying top dollar for the right to watch people we’ve never met play a game for our amusement, is quite frankly, weird. But the reasons why we behave the way we do under these peculiar circumstances provide practical lessons for building better products, and perhaps better lives.

Sports are fundamentally human and more importantly, they are fun. Porting some of the same psychological tenets of sports into business is more than just a ploy to make products more addictive, it’s a way to increase customer satisfaction. Sports make people happy. Fans come to watch the games to feel good and even when their teams lose, they leave happy enough to return again for the next game, and the next, and just one more.

Thanks to Max Ogles for reading early versions of this essay.