Member-only story
UI/UX Design: The Casino Effect
How to take advantage of a psychological phenomenon that will keep your users coming back, every time.
Overview
It’s no secret; as UI/UX designers, we have to help craft products that keep our users coming back.
Today, I’m going to share with you a simple, but effect tool that you can use to engage with your users, and increase their desire to come back to your product, even if they’ve been away for a while.
The Casino Effect
This particular phenomenon is a combination of several psychological effects that can occur in tandem within the human brain, but most notably occur within the setting of a casino, hence the name.
Crucially, it is a combination of: reciprocity, commitment, consistency, loss aversion, scarcity, and social proof that drives the potency of this effect.
Let’s take a look at how it works and how you can use it in your product.
- Show user how many people are already using or will be using your product (social proof)
- Give a user something of value just for signing up (reciprocity)
- Ask user to talk about the things they like and want (commitment & consistency)
- Offer a limited-time, personalized deal just for them (scarcity)
- Give it to them for free for a time, and then let them know that if they don’t want it anymore, it will be cancelled automatically (loss aversion).
There are countless applications that use this patterns, most notably services like TikTok, LinkedIn, and Netflix to name just a few.
But how does this work, and is it ethical?
The mechanics of the Casino Effect
We have to understand that its called the casino effect because it replicates the casino itself, not necessarily the gambling.
Casinos do several things exceptionally well:
- They offer their guests a whole lot of things for free or “on the house,” to encourage continuous play.
- They take down your name, personal info, and certain information at check-in when you get your chips.
