The Seam Between Wanting and Liking

AI summary focused on the core points of the original article.

This article combines product design with neuroscience and psychology to address the addictiveness of digital products and the ethical responsibility of designers.

Key Takeaways

The separation of Wanting and Liking: According to neuroscience research (Kent Berridge and Terry Robinson and others), the system that 'craves' something (Wanting) and the system that actually 'enjoys' it (Liking) work differently. Users can keep opening an app out of habit without feeling satisfied.
Uncertainty and dopamine: Dopamine responds much more strongly to 'uncertain rewards (unpredictability)' than to simple rewards. The reason SNS feeds and notification features keep drawing people in is that they are designed around this uncertainty.
The product designer's experience: The author recalls a past experience with a real estate search app, where strengthening the notification feature increased user visits and time spent, but did not actually help users find a home. Engagement metrics went up, but only the gap between 'wanting' and 'liking' widened.
The designer's ethical responsibility: It is easy to create products that widen the gap between wanting and liking in order to raise short-term metrics, but truly great designers should recognize that boundary and know how to restrain themselves.

Ultimately, the message is that a good product should be one that users can look back on after a long time and still feel glad and satisfied that they spent their time on it.

XPLORED View

This article proposes an ethical design standard that does not automatically treat a product's 'return visits' as a good signal, and instead asks whether users were actually more satisfied after coming back.

Good situations for reading

When designing notifications, feeds, recommendations, or retention mechanisms and wondering where a useful habit ends and an addictive loop begins
When engagement metrics are rising, but you are unsure whether users' actual achievement or satisfaction is improving as well

Key points to take away

You need to check whether the wanting a product creates grows together with actual liking, or whether only the gap between the two is widening.
A good designer's capability lies not only in the power to bring users back, but also in the restraint to know where to stop using that power.

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This article is summarized and interpreted by XPLORED based on publicly available original sources and related materials. Rights to the original source and materials included in it belong to their respective rights holders. If a rights holder requests a correction or removal, we will review and respond promptly.

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