Adaptive Path throws down the gauntlet

Change makes a word of difference!
The word far was introduced in the text and Adaptive Path have clearified what they meant to convey. I apologize for not giving Adaptive Path the benefit of doubt in the original statement. I guess we europeans are a little over-sensitive to perceived condecending attitudes. I will however leave the original text below as a timely reminder of how just a small three letter word can make such a drastic difference in user experience.

I was quite shocked to read Adaptive Paths blog entry about UX Intensive in Amsterdam. As a european UX practicioner I was insulted by the following statement:

From what we’ve been told, the European UX community has evolved beyond the basics, and we’re excited to bring our workshop for intermediate-to-advanced practitioners to The Continent.

If this is the mindset of Adaptive Path when they are visiting Europe I will have to say the same as a fellow practicioner said to me before this post: "That is a reason not to go."

As mentioned above the text is now changed. It is interesting to see the change just one word makes. The now text is now:

From what we’ve been told, the European UX community has evolved far beyond the basics, and we’re excited to bring our workshop for intermediate-to-advanced practitioners to The Continent.

Without the help of facial expressions and vocal tone we are left with fewer tools for communication. We can learn from this that with fewer tools, the application of the tools we have has to be more precise.

When I do expert evaluations of web sites I find that I focus a lot on tone of voice, labels, wording and text, this whole incident will not change that.