UX writing and the unconscious (2024)

In UX Writing, many factors drive success. Common among these extend beyond UX. Architecture, fiction, marketing, and psychology, to name a few. I’m here to talk about the latter, as I find it’s one of my favorite parts of UX Writing, the unconscious.

We know of UX Writing as this part of Content Design which is also a part of UX Design; a subsect within subsects. It’s an important way of informing users, guiding them through a product, and satisfying them. It’s their journey, they are the Bilbo Baggins and UX Writers are their Gandalf. Through copy, it is how a brand communicates to its users.

What drove me to this curiosity was someone quite familiar to me.

In 2017, my favorite author Cormac McCarthy wrote an essay for the Santa Fe Institute. Titled The Kekulé Problem, he spoke of the unconscious and how humans and animals respond. I loved the essay and it fascinated me with every point he made. For brevity’s sake, it can simplified to “The subconscious is older than the human language.”

This immediately got my attention. Science isn’t my forte, but McCarthy’s message got me thinking. Though what he said doesn’t completely lend itself to UX Writing, it inspired me to research it further. My findings went well beyond what I thought they would be.

We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. We’re but miniscule stardust woven into the greater fabric of galaxies, and we’ll never know how deep it goes.

It’s the same with psychology. Studies have paved the way to where we are, and continue to do so, and thus the conversation will always change. It’s possible that no matter the evolution, we will never know the full extent of how we operate. And that’s so interesting to me.

As I delved further into UX Writing, seeing the leap in interface quality was staggering. It’s charming to look at the websites of the late 1990s. But compared to now? Standards are higher thanks to UX. This simple part of our daily lives has deep pools of thought; only professionals swim in it with such ease.

I’ve noticed as much in UX Writing. How so? It’s in how the Unconscious dictates the relationship between behavior and UX.

Throughout my journey, I’ve noticed how I sometimes skim through words on interfaces. What caused me to do so? I thought it to be through the structure of language via the familiarity of it. This aspect of psychology furthered my drive to learn more about how our minds work with UX.

The more I fell down the rabbit hole of UX Writing, the more I began to see it everywhere. Every app, video game, smart TV, and even modern refrigerators.

I even saw it in a place I never expected it to. One day I went to an AMC Theater, surprised at their new implementation of their digital kiosks. Each screen was intuitive and helpful, with each word and component being easy to read. It’s not only our laptops or phones that ease users through Content Design. I found that so intriguing. I couldn’t help but geek out. This sparked my curiosity further.

So, I sought answers. This is what I have found in my research and experience.

It’s important to note the men whose studies of the unconscious affected psychology. Carl Jung, Jacques Lacan, and Sigmund Freud. Their studies have shaped how the public perceives the unconscious experience. Their beliefs can be best summarized through Dr. D’s article on symbols and language.

• Carl Jung :
  Within the collective unconscious, universal behavioral patterns or archetypes are inside us. They cover storytelling, dreams, and myths.
• Jacques Lacan:
  Through the structures of reality and identity, Lacan theorized the importance of symbols. These gather from gender, nationality, religion, and more within language and culture.
• Sigmund Freud:
  The connection the unconscious has with language and symbolism. This is through the consciousness of the human psyche.

In UX Writing, these approaches to the practice are present. Example: Jung’s ideas of perception lend themselves to user personas and brand voices. Meanwhile, Lacan’s lends itself to more accessible roles. It speaks to niches within society within individual experiences. Freud’s position distances itself from these. He bases it on the symbolism of what’s understood through representation through simplicity.

How users interact with interfaces considering microcopy lies in repeated experience. The more familiar users are with the flow, the more it teaches how to use it until it becomes second nature. The copy may be present, but it may go unread; this does not mean it isn’t doing its job.

Once familiar with something, humans scan or move based on learned patterns. This familiarity with UX, like language, reminds me of Jung through his views of patterns. Humans recognize these patterns through archetypes.

If you’ve searched a streaming app you’ve used, would you know your way through categories to find your movie or show? If you’re playing a video game, did your many “Game Over” screens teach you how to improve?

Some copy needs to draw attention to deliver critical information or educate users. Some follow a structure that, through familiarity, creates a quick and enjoyable experience. Don’t leave users to overthink things. Help them do it.

The art of UX Writing is knowing when to be seen and when not to be so well, like a ninja. And ninjas are cool. At least I say they are.

Writing across UIs and guiding through UX requires a strategy. This strategy should focus on knowledge, experience, empathy, research, and psychology. When users are intimate with an experience, anything requiring attention must stand out. Otherwise, they might miss something. Show the users what they don’t know, because they don’t know what they don’t know yet.

That’s the thing that excites me, connections between UX Writing and the Unconscious. After reading UX lessons from Freud’s unconscious mind, that intrigue grew. In it, writer Mo Dube informs that copy must “speak the language of the unconscious to speak to it.”

Tailoring an experience around the user’s attention is crucial. Guiding users around through scannability and readability helps them when information presents itself. For instance, imagine most input forms. For first experiences, users may parse the requirements presented therein. After several times, the familiarity with users begins to stick. These patterns begets using those same input labels and placeholders over and over. Hence, they begin to blend in. If one tends to know something through repeated experience, they learn. Routine has taught them how to interact. The unconscious’s teachings have made it a natural experience.

Users shouldn’t think too hard when they don’t have to. As creatures dictated by behavior, first impressions matter. A major UX Writing goal is taking the load off users so they can finish their desired tasks without much effort. I’m no stranger to this — I often give up on a service if its interface is too complicated.

Stefani Vujic thought the same in her article, Put simply: Improve your UX Writing skills with behavioral psychology. In it, she states there’s a “system 1” and a “system 2”. System 1 is acting through fast decisions without much thought. System 2 is the more involved and deliberate of the two. Vujic suggests that copy must follow system 1 because of UX Writing’s responsibility. “Simplify what the action contains.”

Microcopy isn’t meant for memorization by users living their lives. Instead, it’s a small fragment of minutes of an hour of the average user’s day. Follow the path and you won’t get lost. Only UXers are the ones likely to decipher the art and strategy of it. That’s their job, not the user’s.

My job search experience has taught me as much. My favorite among job sites, Greenhouse, condenses the time spent on applications. First name. Last name. Email. Phone number. Resume. Then, whatever else the hiring manager needs.

Within niches, UX writers should be familiar with topics their audiences will know. Voice and tone represent what professionals in the specific niches should sound like.

Let’s take a look at two examples.

The microcopy for a coffee brand’s site would represent what users would expect. Imagine you’re a barista, leading customers to their next delicious cup of espresso. Or

Healthcare operates in a similar, albeit important way. It requires knowledge of medical jargon and practices. This is vital for their audience to build trust and familiarity. Sounding like a doctor, nurse, or medical clerk is often the best for situations like these.

These topics should sound professional according to their industries. They must do so so that users can understand without the complex jargon if they’re unfamiliar. You’re the professional here, communicate like one.

Branding is key here. For business needs, users must feel like they know the brand. Being the voice of it goes beyond the profession that needs embodying. Profession is a character trait, and the brand is the character itself, in loose terms. The personality imbued within the service must feel real. It needs to replicate how businesses conduct themselves. The image is the voice.

Speaking as though others already know what you’re talking about is detrimental. It’s confusing and can cause distrust within users. What does this button do? How can I fill this empty screen? Will my content autosave? Your users need education. They don’t know what they don’t know.

The unconscious relies on the other turning wheels that operate society to work as thus. Don’t write to write. Learn the inner workings. Learn the language of the unconscious. Respect the cogs and help them turn as they’re supposed to.

UX isn’t only pre-defined by past methods and principles. Interfaces that are pleasing to the eye lead to great first impressions. Their function drives the satisfaction of those using the service. They’re derived from UXers who dared to think outside the box. That’s the natural evolution of things.

In a world of AI, human creativity delivers that user-centric approach. It’s what breaks away from conventions of how technical things must be. See the user’s problems and act on empathy. Be that humanistic feel. In the unconscious, users don’t feel they’re navigating with another computer screen. There’s another person on the other side… thinking, feeling, breathing. It isn’t an excuse to be a comedian, it’s a reason to be empathetic and “real”.

Earlier, I mentioned McCarthy’s focus on language and the unconscious. I’ve got personal experience in this. As someone studying six languages, I’ve familiarized myself with their sentence structures. I used to take the concept of different languages for granted. Now, I see their amazing complexities. It’s fluid, yet anchors itself to its many cores.

While I understand Japan’s hiragana and katakana, I struggle with kanji. The Cyrillic script may feature similar characters in their alphabets but they differ. One letter may sound different than the other, and sometimes spellings are different. The Latin in Italian and Spanish is familiar, but the text and spoken word often lose me in their structures. Yet in the unconscious, the patterns become clearer the further I learn.

We learn our native languages early in life, but do we need it? With how far the world has come due to its existence, I’d like to say yes. Yet we have body language and symbols that speak for those who can see it. But what if we can’t see it? What then?

For UX Writing, the greater context of Content Design beyond it does the heavy lifting. For the areas that language cannot reach, Content Design grasps. Now, Content Design differs in definition, depending on who defines it. I’ll speak to it as I know it — as a wider way to communicate with users.

Content Design thrives on communicating ideas through various means. Remember when I brought up charts and graphics? Same principle here. Content Design does what language may not, and yet they must coexist. An icon or photo may get the point across fine, but what about those who can’t read it well, if at all? Alt text would enhance the design’s accessibility for those who can’t see the content. There’s a coexistence that keeps the connection with the Unconscious alive.

Content Design uses information architecture to guide users across the experience. There are many layers, from color theory to video/audio. Through this, it should be calculative and mindful. to be successful.

On my LinkedIn page, I post updates to my Content Design about the streaming service, NJPW World. I may have gripes about the service that necessitated my re-design, but it deserves praise. As seen below, the first thing users see on the landing page is the means to consume the product. This is the ideal information desired, so having it front and center is a huge assist.

That’s what intrigues me about Content Design. It’s about delivering information in an eye-catching way at opportune times. You want the user to act now, so compel them. You want them to feel calm, neutral, and blameless. Leave that lasting first impression that leads them to explore more. Guiding users with the right strategy drives the satisfaction that keeps users returning. When successful, it beckons them back to the product or to recommend it to others when they no longer need it.

Absorbed by the unconscious, familiar layouts through Content Design present a cohesive experience. It’s an iterative experience that builds upon itself and there’s always room for adjustments. Standards evolve. So does language. Slang, jargon, meanings, and conversations are ever-changing. What the norm is now, won’t be the norm later. Adapt.

Throughout evolution, growth builds upon what the unconscious sees as needs improving. Progress always works by fixing the pain points of our world. It’s how businesses and their audiences connect. It’s how we live. Arunabha Bhattacharya stated as much in the article Designing for Unconscious Desires. He states the benefits of knowing and empathizing with user habits and behaviors. By mapping out each step in a user journey, these solutions can stick with users on deeper levels.

In the history of UX writing, the Unconscious has changed how we navigate products. Some things may stay constant, but the practice always evolves.

And that excites me. The whole psychological aspect thrills me to no end. This part of UX Writing/Content Design resonates with me. It’s driven my interest in it as I’ve learned and practiced. Interacting with UI is often a small part of our daily lives, yet so much goes into it. While art and architecture are also great influences, the understanding of

Ideas are infectious to the unconscious. The limits may seem constrictive, yet extend past where we perceive them. When it comes to the unconscious, I can see it forever changing the process of UX Writing in perpetuity. The more we look at the teachings of Freud, Jung, and Lacan, the further the limits can go. And it’s why professionals often tell newbies like me to look beyond UX and the web and language. We must look to art, architecture, science, and psychology.

With how important psychology is to UX, this too deserves attention.