Designing Places People Crave
We’re in the business of manufacturing desire. Our job is to make people want to spend time somewhere and come back again
Handed a brochure, browsing google maps, or deciding which hotel or experience to choose, we can give place brands the upper hand by creating habit loops in target audiences.
‘I always check W Hotels first for city breaks,’ ‘I’m forever looking up the closest Blank Street when I pull into a station,’ ‘I’d want to see if ____ has a development there first.’
A habit is a form of loyalty – so by making a place or service habitual you have created a long-term visitor / customer.
We’re perhaps more used to hearing about habit loops when it comes to tech. Instagram, Notion, Amazon, Netflix, have invested millions in creating the mental shortcuts that take those brands from ‘tools we sometimes use’ to ‘integral parts of our day’.
Why Your Place Needs a Hook
While the common argument might be that choosing a place to live, spend time or pass through is propped up by rational thought, the truth is the human brain relies far more on instinctive, emotional decision making than we care to admit.
If we were to learn from tech giants, we’d start by putting behavioural economics at the centre of our placemaking. We’d look to build habit loops to make our places memorable, addictive even. Why? Because habits give us an unfair advantage over the competition – their product or place needs to be exponentially better – to not only attract a customer in but force them to break habitual behaviour. The strength of that habit also reduces price sensitivity meaning you can charge a premium.
So, let’s break down a habit loop, as developed by behavioural economist Nir Eyal and see how each part could be applied to placemaking.
1. Trigger
This is our spark. Habit-forming tech might start with external triggers – an alert, notification, or email.
In placemaking a trigger might be:
- Locating a coffee shop that could become a daily stop for commuters.
- A push notification for a local event.
- The smell of a bakery pumped into the street, asking people to stop and dwell.
- Seeing a run club gathering and creating curiosity.
So what? Our competition for attention may be with a competitor – another hotel, attraction or development, or it may simply be with the phone we are likely to be glued to while walking. Great places can’t afford to wait to be discovered – they need to invite people in, repeatedly, through a variety of triggers. Signage, scent, sound, social proof – think of all the opportunities you have to prompt action and map them out.
2. Action
Once triggered, then comes the intended action. Here the opportunity is to pull on human behaviour ‘levers’. In tech this might be clicking a link, or moving on to your next lesson in Duolingo. Making the action as easy as possible to take, while boosting motivation is key.
In placemaking actions might be:
- Sitting down on a well-placed bench.
- Creating desire pathways where people are taking shortcuts across a public square.
- Pausing to observe a piece of artwork or a sculpture.
- Grabbing a takeaway coffee.
So what? Asking ‘what’s the simplest thing someone can do in this place?’ Is a good start. If an action requires too much effort, the loop breaks down. The best places reduce friction and invite easy, small interactions.
3. Variable Reward
Variable rewards keep people coming back. A study on mice in the 1950s showed that mice are most eager to try for a reward if the reward changes. When the brain expects a reward, dopamine surges, but when that reward becomes variable, that effect is multiplied.
Social media feeds and dating apps are addictive because you’re scrolling and swiping in the search of something rewarding that you might get if you keep going.
In placemaking we can create variable rewards by:
- Unexpected street performances
- A rotating cast of stalls at the local market
- Changing menus, lighting or planting with the seasons
- Offering different gym class taster sessions
So what? Asking ourselves – ‘what’s going to keep people coming back?’ Is step one. Designing with variation, changing the types of events or experiences someone might have, means you can create a disproportionate dopamine response.
4. Investment
The part where we ask the audience to do some work. In tech this might be giving over data, asking them to take a personalisation quiz, upload a photo, or invite a friend.
It’s not transactional, but rather a commitment that will improve the service for the audience next time they experience a trigger.
In placemaking we’re likely to ask for more emotional or practical investments:
- Bring family or friends
- Post about it on social media
- Learn about a ‘members only’ spot
- Volunteering at a local event
- Choosing to live, work or rent there.
So what? The more someone uses, personalises or contributes to a space, the more loyal they become. Moving them from visitor to someone who feels they have ownership; ‘that’s my favourite spot to catch up with friends’ is the key to creating a habitual place.
Conclusion
The benefits of creating strong habits in your customers and communities are numerous – not least reduced marketing spend as internal established internal habit loops reduce the need for expensive external prompting.
When we’re in the visioning stage of placemaking, what would we do differently if we designed a place as a loop? Create a trigger, compel action, design variable rewards and encourage audiences to invest in the place.
Taking on the role of behaviour engineer is simply a new way of framing lots of the ideas that might come up in the placemaking process. Applying them with the relentlessness of tech companies, masters of habit formation, might just create places that are addictive.