If the design is in the details, the sticky factor is in the hook. When it comes to most things you will find you boil it down and it simmers down to a core of essence. One thing that works well on the web has to be the simple things. These simple things that reel us in and become obsessively part of our lives. We just love the simple things in life.
Simple talk
The most obvious simple takeover hook wise lately has to be in Twitter. For those of you who aren’t on a long waiting list for twitters-anonymous, Twitter is at it’s thin end a way of in the third person saying what you are doing / what you feel / what you see / just something that is you at a point in time. You can do this through IM (instant messaging – AIM and Jabber), online or by your phone. There are even a range of nice little widgets you can use to third person yourself. Many will question why so many people appear to have lost all logic and love twittering… the thing is it comes down to the simple hook of it. Twitter is at it’s core simple and as a result it taps into that addictive simple need satisfaction that usually results in an unexplained enjoyment from doing these simple hooks.
Simple gaming
Simple hooks have for a long time been used in many areas of development and design. A particular strong area where simple hooks is used is in gaming. One of those simple hooks games can be seen in Bejewelled. I love this game, it’s just a variant if you think about it on Tetris (which again shows the simple hook use). There isn’t over complication it works Games use the addictive quality of simple hooks as standard keys. If you think about the games you play it’s more than likely the simple cores that are top of the ladder.
Use the hook
To look at what is a simple hook and what isn’t you just have to look at what grabs you. A while ago there was a lot of talk about making sites that were ‘sticky’. You can find endless articles about what is sticky and how to make something sticky (insert hilarious glue joke here). Sticky design is just that though – it works, you come back. It draws you and calls out from the crowded web from it’s design to development and content. There is a great important to simmer down and not over complicate websites in both design and function.
