Yours lovingly internal & external triggers

Yoyoboy
3 min readDec 2, 2018

“Our smart devices have become an essential part of modern life and checking them regularly is second nature for most users.” — Greg Tatton-Brown

We living in a world of hurry, Mostly we don't have enough time to go & look around the environment, we just hooked by smartphones and apps. it can be either traveling, after wake up, bathroom, in between office etc., According to survey Average person check their smartphone once 28 times a day.. so it will be around 10,000 in a year

But, what Psychology makes them to scroll Facebook, checking twitter latest trends, post a Instagram pic, read hot news, order food, book an car?

Because,
All their user behaviors are changed to do that particular task.
For repeating the behavior a new habit is formed.

“A habit (or wont) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.”

BJFoggs formula for changing behavior

B= MAT (behavior = Motivation+Ability+Trigger)

If a person is motivated, has enough ability and a trigger is presented at the right time,its highly likely that person will perform a task you want them to perform.

Motivation/Internal trigger
- Pleasure/Pain
- Hope/Fear
- Social acceptance/Rejectance

Ability
- Time
- Money
- Physical effort
- Brain cycles
- Social deviance

Trigger/External trigger
- Spark
- Signal
- Facilitator

How?

  • When a user is internally triggered to do a particular task.
  • Creating a external trigger that would create internal triggers to do a particular task

Examples of how brands user this psychological principle to change behavior

Swiggy (Indian online food ordering service )

External Triggers

Notification, SMS, Ads on road, Ads on TV, Ads on social medias (mostly youtube), Known from friends & Colleagues

Internal Triggers

  1. Pleasure
  2. Fear

At Salary day, After noon, Morning, Diwali, Ramadan etc., Swiggy triggered externally with SMS or notification to make a signal for user and that context/visuals creates user attention and it persuade to open app and order food.

On the other hand, if users feel hungry, coming late from office, thinks no time to cook, lazy and many excuses may thinks user fear or pleasure to order food online

Amazon (E-commerce online shopping)

External trigger

Notification, SMS, Ads on road, Ads on TV, Ads on Application, Ads on Social medias(Facebook, Instagram), Google search, Known from friends & Colleagues

Internal triggers

  1. Pleasure
  2. Fear

Shopping on Amazon mostly triggered internally if user want some product/ Require immediately. Product creates pleasure for user and this makes engage with amazon further.

Some times amazon offers deals, limited products, exclusive items make user fear of missing and makes continuously hunt for many products forever.

UBER (Ride Booking App)

External trigger

Notifications, SMS, Emails, Social medias, Tv advertisements, Bill boards

Internal Trigger

  1. Fear
  2. Pleasure

Waiting for bus, Need to arrive on time, Plan to go out with family, Late night, Early morning. users fears for walk, getting public transports, rent a car, not able to reach soon etc., This fear persuade them to use book a cab from UBER.

Thanks for reading! Hope you learn something today

Study & Reference : Hooked book, BJFoggs blog, Uxmint.

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