We’re at trigger six, which brings us a little over halfway through our ten part series on psychological triggers and patterns. In this lesson, we’ll be covering how you can use your customers drive for achievement to maximize the time the spend using your application or service.

What is Achievement?

The need for Achievement is one of the main psychological factors that drives motivation. Neurologically, Achievement, along with the other drivers of motivation, stimulate reward pathways in the brain, make us feel good, and encourage us to continue making an effort. The need for achievement causes us to seek out meaningful challenges, keep track of progress, and look to others for appraisal and validation.

Achievement is one of the main motivators for competition and playing games. Most importantly on an individual level, completing challenges, and on a social level, receiving recognition for achievements, creates a strong sense of satisfaction.

How you can use it.

Achievement is one of the main motivators for competition and playing games. Most importantly on an individual level, completing challenges, and on a social level, receiving recognition for achievements, creates a strong sense of satisfaction.

People want to be rewarded for their efforts and enjoy being pitted against others to demonstrate they have the drive to succeed. Nike+ and Fitbit have capitalized on this desire to win with their leaderboards. Not only do these help people reach their goals, they also promote more engagement with the company's' products. However, keep in mind that while your users may enjoy competition, no one likes something that is completely out of their reach. Learn from Fitbit, which calculates its leaderboard for each week, instead of an overall basis.

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