The secret of Tinder

Or..
The hunter’s loop
And how to apply it to your products

Ever wondered why Tinder
is such an addictive dating platform?

There are of course many reasons

But I think that more than anything,
Tinder is actually a casual game. (With benefits).

Backboned with one of the most addictive loops I know:
The hunter’s loop.

Which is a primal, instinctive model wired to our brains.

This model can be applied to almost everything,
digital and tangible.

Applied right, this could boost your product to
a never before seen engagement.

But before I spill the beans and tell you what it is..

1. Make sure you have 5 minutes.
This is the average reading time for this deck.

My name is Dori Adar,
creative director at TabTale.
I love games, digital products and junk food.
doriadar@gmail.com

The hunter’s loop has 6 phases.

1
Spotting patterns
Spotting patterns is something that we are wired to do.

1
Spotting patterns
Our brains loves this activity.
We do it passively most of the time.

1
Spotting patterns
Until we spot something that triggers an emotion..
the prey.

Phase #2
Envisioning the prize

2
envisioning the prize
Upon spotting the target, the hunter starts to feel
her heart pounding faster

2
She might look at an antelope,
but what she really sees..

2
Is the prize.

2
If you ever filled up a lottery ticket and immediately started thinking of the
millions to come...

2
Envisioning the prize fills our hunter’s head
with a “let’s do it” feeling

2
Caused by the sweet dopamine doses
the nerve cells now release

This dose is just enough for what I call:
the small act.

The hunter decides to act. A small, simple act.
3
The small act

She moves to place, aiming, waiting for the right
moment to attack.
3
The small act

During this phase dopamine keeps on kicking,
ensuring she were more focused
4
Anticipation

Making the reward even more desirable.
4
Anticipation

This build up is extremely important.
Without it the hunt would be emotionless.

5
The big act
Everything is channeled to the moment when the hunter
goes for the battle!

6
The reward
(And if all went as planned)
Winning the reward, the prize.

This marks the end of the hunters loop,
leaving the hunter hungry for the next one.

1 2 3 4
Spotting patterns
Finding the target
Imagining the reward The small act Anticipation phase
Action starts.
6
...

Some casual games use this loop as the backbone
of their game mechanic

Although it is usually one phase shorter.
No “big act” (phase #5) in a casual game.

Or the game might become too complex and hardcore.

Let me show you what I mean while deconstructing
“Angry birds”

1: spotting patterns 2: Envisioning the reward

1: spotting patterns 2: Envisioning the reward 3: The small act

1: spotting patterns 2: Envisioning the reward 3: The small act 4: Anticipation phase

1: spotting patterns 2: Envisioning the reward 3: The small act 4: Anticipation phase 5: The (variable) reward

This also works in Candy crush saga.

1: spotting patterns 2: Envisioning the reward 3: The small act 4: anticipation
(Chain reaction)
4: The (variable) rewar...

As you can see, no “big acts” are needed here.

But I want to stress out the importance of
variable rewards, that we have just seen in those games.

A variable reward is changing all the time.
Sometimes small, sometimes big,

In a nutshell - this variability is what gets us hooked.

Nir Eyal, the author of “Hooked” described it nicely:

The light in the refrigerator is a nice reward,
but constant. It’s always there.

Therefore, not very exciting.
This door will remain closed until we are hungry.

However, if each time we opened the door
we’d find a different snack inside...

We would open this fridge A LOT.

(BTW each time you share this presentation
you will also see a different snack.)

Now lets see how Tinder does it.

1: Spotting patterns, finding
the target

the target
2: Envisioning the reward
Whatever you
imagine….

the target
Whatever you
imagine….
3: The small act

the target
Whatever you
imagine….
3: The small act 4: Anticip...

Since tinder is also a “real-life” game,
“It’s a match” is sometimes just triggering the big act (chatting, flirting, mee...

And the hunters could continue and get their tangible reward in real life

But since most of the “tinder relationships” ends with “it’s a match”
I argue that this phase is the digital reward.

And because of Tinder’s mobile nature,
it is all happening pretty fast, too.

Which makes it a tight and perfect hunters loop.

This reward is also variable.
You know, “Some girls are bigger than others”.

So what can we learn from applying the hunter loop
into a digital product?

1. Make sure the reward is super understandable and desirable,
so the users could envision it.

2. Make sure that the “small act” is indeed small,
understandable and easy to do.

3. Try to complete the loop within the digital realms,
saving “big acts” for real life

4. Remember the variable reward.

I want to leave you with 2 more thoughts:

Thought #1:
Almost everyone is a hunter.

People hunting for dates are a big market
and their reward is clear.

But people also hunt for
art, food, jobs, experiences..

Think how you can apply the hunters model in your product.

Thought #2:
There are also the gatherers.

Gatherers act differently than hunters.
Pinterest, for example, is a good product for gatherers.

Think of your users. Who are they?
Hunters or gatherers?

Subscribe to get my next presentation on the gatherers loop

And feel free to drop a line
should you need some insights on your product!

P.S
Did you learn something from this presentation?

If the answer is yes..
Please share it!

Though I lied about the different snacks appearing when sharing :P