Hooked

Hooked by Nir Eyal introduces the Hook Model, a four-phase cycle, trigger, action, variable reward, investment, used by the world’s most engaging technology products. Eyal shows how companies like Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are designed to create automatic behaviours in users, minimising the need for expensive advertising or persuasion by building products people return to compulsively. The book draws on behavioural economics, psychology, and interaction design, and is written for product designers and entrepreneurs who want to build genuinely habit-forming products. Crucially, Eyal also addresses the ethical dimensions of persuasive design and introduces the concept of the ‘Facilitator vs. Manipulator’ test for founders who want to build responsibly.