I attended an interesting talk by Nir Nireyal at the HI Green House.  You can find the recap and video in this post on his blog: Behavior by Design.

There are lots of great studies on how people use websites, and specific tactics to exploit them. Nir pulled them together into a framework he called the Desire Engine. He isn’t just an academic spouting theories; he’s a successful entrepreneur who’s built web businesses on these ideas and sold them.

From his website:

Here’s the gist:

• The degree to which a company can utilize habit-forming technologies will increasingly decide which products and services succeed or fail.
• Addictive technology creates “internal triggers” which cue users without the need for marketing, messaging or any other external stimuli.  It becomes a user’s own intrinsic desire.
• Creating internal triggers comes from mastering the “desire engine” and its four components: trigger, action, variable reward, and commitment.
• Consumers must understand how addictive technology works to prevent being manipulated while still enjoying the benefits of these innovations.

Easy to imagine the massive benefits of creating an addictive website. What if you didn’t need to market, to advertise, or to remind users what your site’s URL is? How about hooking readers to your site after their first visit?  What if users automatically thought of your site and visited it, without even being prompted?  That is power.

One thought that struck me was that most websites are free. You don’t pay any money to access Google or Facebook or whatever. Instead, you “pay” with your time–and more importantly, your attention. Then these websites turn around and sell that customer attention to advertisers.

Attention is the currency most web entrepreneurs are after. How do you get it?  Here are more articles on this fascinating topic.

Here’s How Websites Manipulate You

How Online Companies Get You to Share More and Spend More – A brilliant article in Wired magazine by Dan Ariely, one of the world’s foremost experts on behavioral economics. Watch him break down how popular websites use a full arsenal of psychological tactics: time limits, social proof and more.

Use Gaming for Fun–and Profit!

How to Use Gamification for Better Business Results – Peep Laja, a specialist in conversion rate optimization (CRO), shows how e-commerce websites use game mechanics to run theirs businesses better.

Case Study: Dropbox

Online storage is not sexy. Yet somehow Dropbox turned a mundane feature into something cool–even social. I like to point to them as a web startup that spent practically no money on advertising, yet got onto the computer of every tech-savvy user in the world.

The 7 Ways Dropbox Hacked Growth to Become a $7 Billion Company

The Dark Side: Using This Knowledge for Evil

Nir said in his talk that these mind tactics work, and are not good or bad themselves. It’s the purpose you are using these tricks for that matter.

Unfortunately, there are people who will use these on their websites to grab more money then they deserve. Have you ever bought something online, and the price was higher than what you thought? Or how about signing up for a “free trial” only to start getting recurring monthly charges on your credit card? Shady stuff!

Check out this slideshow presentation called “Dark Patterns: An Overview for Brand Owners.”

Here’s a companion article on A List Apart – Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. The author also runs a website called Dark Patterns, where he names and shames companies that abuse these skills.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” as said by Spider-Man, one of my favorite superheroes. Use this knowledge to boost your business and help your customers.

Photo: Electric “Drugs” sign at Walgreen’s pharmacy store.  Curtis Perry / Flickr.