The Power of Variable Rewards — Part 1
One of the biggest challenges for a UX designer is retain the users in the product or service that the designer is offering. One way to do is by creating user-habits that revolve around the product/service. But that is easier said than done.
Creating a habit, according to Nir Eyal, author of the book — “Hooked”, contains 4 different phases. Trigger, Action, Variable Reward and Investment. Among these “Variable Reward” is something that appeals to me the most, especially the term “Variable”.
Imagine your refrigerator door. Every-time you open the door, it lights up in the same colour. Nothing exciting about it. You are not tempted to open the door time and again.
Now imagine a refrigerator which lights up in different different colours while opening the door. The kid in us will definitely want to open the door multiple time to see how which colour it lights up next.
This Variable reward can be put to good use in products where you want users to get into the habit of using your application/service again and again. A good example of this is Google Pay rewards. When Tez ( Google pay was named Tez when it was first launched in India ) was launched, for each transaction you would get a reward. This reward was designed to be “Variable”. For double digit transactions you were able to get three digit cash-back ( not anymore though 😔 ). People started using Google Pay just to get these hefty cash-backs.
The beauty of the Variable reward strategy is its ability to create a craving. Feedback loops are all around us. But the monotonous ones, don’t create desire. Research shows that levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine surge when the brain is expecting a reward. Over a period of time variable reward also loses its charm and users start getting used to it. So it is necessary to keep innovating and changing to retain users.
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Suggested article : The importance of patience in design.
