Author: Mandar Apte

Uber Driver Tip, A illegal/unlawful/unthoughtful user interaction

Mandar Apte Apple, Apple iOS, Apps, Art & Design, Reviews, User Experience Design Leave a comment

One fine day I was returning from one destination to home through a cab booked over Uber Cabs. While travelling I was snacking and drinking water, and my hand was wet. Once I arrived I made a trip payment through an online card or Amazon Pay.

About to get out of the car I was scrolling on my iPhone through my wet fingers to rate that trip.

In the next second, I received an in-app notification that you have been charged INR 100 for tipping the driver for a safe ride. In disbelief, I was thinking how that happened as I was not planning to tip the driver.

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Betting your company on Metaverse AR/VR Craze

Mandar Apte Apple, Apple iOS, Apple iPadOS, Apple macOS, Apple watchOS, Apps, Art & Design, Company, Personal Experience, Reviews, User Experience Design Leave a comment

First Story that I want to share today is from past experience

The year was 2009 I was working as an Animator and E-Learning Courseware Creator and Designer. And I was planning to switch the design domain to HCI/UX i.e. Human-Computer Interaction/User Experience Design.

And software like Apple Shake and Adobe After Effects was a common competitive tool that was used in both domains.

I was using an iMac at that time. Adobe After Effects was bundled in Creative Suite at that time, costing around INR 45,000/- in India. Apple Shake was way cheaper as it was a standalone offering from Apple.

It was the day of 30th July 2009 that I was going to start to learn the Apple Shake as Apple offered all tutorials on their website for free. And it was the same day that Apple discontinued Apple Shake. When I woke up early in the morning to start to learn I saw the news on their portal. I was devastated by the news. But I was relieved as I saved my time as if I started learning it two months ago and then they discontinued it then it was the waste of time and energy. As the software skill that you acquired doesn’t exist in the world or there is no demand for your skill in your industry is a total waste of time.

There is another story that I can share with you today.

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Human Factors International (HFI) UX/UxD/HCI Certification Reality

Mandar Apte Art & Design, College & Institute, Company, Personal Experience, Reviews, User Experience Design Leave a comment

By graduate degree, I am a BFA Applied Art graduate. I know the UX field existed in India and World longer than I know but I came to know of its existence when I was at my first job around the year 2007. I am a multidisciplinary designer.

I opted to do User Experience Design/User Interaction Design/Human-Computer Interaction Design certification around the year 2016. I was going through HFI’s website since the year 2012.

HFI was having main three certifications Certified Usability Analyst (CUA), Certified Certified
Certified User Experience Analyst (CXA), Certified Digital Persuasion Analyst (CDPA).

My observation was HFI was increasing the cost of Certification every year by 15% to 20%.

When I first visited their website the cost was INR 75,000/- But when I registered for the CUA course it was INR 1,08,000/- Immediately the next year they increased rice to almost INR 1,20,000/-.

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Recover accidentally deleted Apple Address Book Contacts, Calendars and Safari Bookmarks from Apple iCloud

Mandar Apte Apple, Apple iCloud, Apple iOS, Apple iPadOS, Apple macOS, Apple watchOS, Tutorials Leave a comment

Apple’s iCloud is for iPhone, iPad and Mac cloud data syncing platforms activated by default for every Apple ID on any Apple device. Apple iCloud was introduced by Apple after the failure of MobileMe cloud offerings for Apple iPhone, iPad and Mac.

In day-to-day life, it may happen that you may accidentally delete or lose your Apple Address Book contacts or Safari Bookmarks or Calender data. But there is a way to restore in the case of loss. You can go to iCloud.com to restore your missing data from an earlier version.

Once you restore old data with current data, the existing data will get replaced. The restoration process can be undone in case of any glitches.

Restore your contacts, bookmarks or calendars from an earlier version

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Web/Mobile App Monetisation & Revenue Generation Strategies

Mandar Apte Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Animation Film Design, Apple, Apple macOS, Apps, Art & Design, Company, Graphic Design, Personal Experience, Print Design, Reviews, Typography, User Experience Design, Web Design Leave a comment

All business survives on net profit.

In accounting terms here is how you calculate Net Profit. i.e. (Total Business Revenue) – (Total Business Expenditure) = Net Profit

In the business world, there are two types of industries Service and the Product industry.

So if you are in the service industry you survive on paycheck by paycheck or hourly charges to the client. You have to work every hour of every day to get ends meet.

But if you are a product company you create a product based on your market research and user research. You find consumer problems/requirements/gaps in the market and then you try to solve them by creating your product in that category. So building a product is based on solving problems that your users are having.

In my case, I was a designer by profession. I graduated with a BFA (Bachelor of Applied Arts) in Advertising. After my first two jobs, I tried freelancing in the web, UX, print, branding and animation film industries. I was the lone proprietor of my business. I was doing everything talking to clients, executing a project, delivering it and then waiting for the final payment to be released. It was too much for me at that time.

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My Experience Using Apple Watch for 5 Years and Apple’s Gamification Strategies

Mandar Apte Apple, Apple iOS, Apple watchOS, Apps, Art & Design, Company, Hardware, Inspiration, Personal Experience, Reviews, User Experience Design Leave a comment

In the year 2019, I bought myself an Apple iPhone 11 Pro 256GB and Apple Watch 5.

I use to use an Apple iPhone 5s with 16GB since 2016. But I was dissatisfied with the storage that it allowed me to use. Out of 16GB, 10GB was operating system 2GB was for Apps that were able to fit it 2GB was for Photos that I captured then I have to delete to make space for the next ones and 2GB was for other apps’ data.

It was total dissatisfaction with the Apple iPhone 5s.

In the year 2016, I was having sciatica. So I use to walk for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening or night. I just completed walking 850 kilometres in a month to get rid of sciatica pain. I use to maintain my walking approx kilometre completed and days walk in week/month and a year. But I was out of sync with my blood pressure, heart rate, calories burned etc.

When Apple iPhone 11 Pro and Apple Watch 5 got released impressed with features like ECG, Fitness app, and Health app capabilities. And I choose 256 GB storage for my iPhone as that’s what I require to sustain all photographs, music, videos and other data for a year or two without deleting it.

I used Apple Watch daily for three years for tracking my outdoor walking exercises, ECG, Heart Rate Monitoring, Calory burning, Exercise hours tracking, Standup Hours tracking, receiving notifications, receiving a phone calls on my watch, reading SMS/Messages on my watch itself etc.

I was totally happy.

But one day I broke my Apple Watch’s Crown or Wheel. I was devastated. I contacted Apple Service Centre they said Apple Watch is unrepairable. And you are out of warranty too.

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A Modern Hindu Brahman Scholler in America & His Salary in USD Affecting His Religious Beliefs

Mandar Apte College & Institute, Hindu Culture & Sanatan Dharma, India / Bharat / Hindusthan, Inspiration, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Personal Experience, Reviews 1 Comment

Almost 22 years ago I was a student at the Sir J. J. School of Applied Art. I was learning BFA Applied Art (Advertising & Marketing)

On the same campus, there was the Sir J. J. School of Art & Sir J. J. School of Architecture.

One story that I experienced and was inspired by was about one Sir J. J. School of Art final-year graduate student who got hired by Disney Animation Studios in America. We all Applied Art students went to meet him shake his hand and saw his sketchbook. We were amazed by his achievements as Disney just doesn’t take Indian Art Students out of graduation as their employment standards and quality of work that they require are high. Disney normally takes Animator with 20 Years of hardcore Animation Industry Experience. But one day out of the blue same J. J. student returned from America after 6 Months as he was depressed saying no Disney Studio colleague said hi to him or waved in gesture in recognition of his existence in the company. It was the year 2001 at that time there was no iPhone, WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram to talk with his parents and siblings. So he was lonely at the tender age of 22 years. This is the psyche of a young man who went to America for a better quality of life than to be in India forever.

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I am married now, And here is how I choose the perfect spouse for my life.

Mandar Apte Announcements, Apps, Hindu Culture & Sanatan Dharma, India / Bharat / Hindusthan, Inspiration, News, Personal Experience, Reviews Leave a comment

It was the year 2012 when discussions about my marriage started happening in my home. Proposals of engagement between me and the prospective bride use to arrive every month or in other’s marriage ceremonies. So I started thinking and planning about it.

My society, school or college friends were getting married at that time. But something strange things were happening in their married lives. My 7 friends including girls and boys were having a divorce for strange reasons.

  1. One girl was got proposed to on Facebook she accepted it when they had their real-life engagement ceremony her groom’s previous girlfriend showed up to stop that engagement as the groom was having affair with her for the last three-four years, So my friend felt heartbroken, and betrayed and cheated.
  2. One of my male friends was married to a girl who never cook or do home-related tasks or never showed the night at home after time out. Then when my friend encounters her for asking about divorce and breaking the marriage she says to him she will launch law suite and a police case for defamation, sexual harassment and abuse. She wanted marriage alimony of 50 lakhs.
  3. One of my friend’s husband was not doing any job and he was physically assaulting her with physical abuse as she was earning a thousand times more than him.
  4. One of my friend’s husbands was unfaithful and had multiple extramarital affairs.
  5. One of my male friends has multiple sexual encounters with his female friends before marriage so he wanted a bride that accepts that allows them to have sexual encounters outside of marriage after marriage.
  6. One of my friends lost his job because of the financial crisis or recession in the year 2008. Then somehow his engagement got broken as the bride stopped talking with him and even her parents. But after two or three months, he got a job in a better company with a greater salary. So if the bride was understanding the situation of lost job then disengagement of marriage would not have happened.
  7. One of my friend’s brides was suspicious and was doubtful of having affairs in office. So she broke the engagement and he was heartbroken as there was no clear communication between the bride and her family. Then he got married after one year to a different and more perfect girl.
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International Women’s Day and the Significance of Indian / Hindu Sanatan Sanskriti or Culture

Mandar Apte Hindu Culture & Sanatan Dharma, India / Bharat / Hindusthan, Inspiration, News, Personal Experience Leave a comment

Christianity or Muslims don’t have goddesses. God Mohammed had multiple wives even from teenagers. Jesus Christ was crucified and then declared god after that torture. After Christ’s death, his daughter supposes to be a priest but then leaders don’t allow that.

But in Hindu Culture we have Goddess Sita, Parwati, Laxmi, Sarvasti and more who are worshipped for their diety and deeds.

So in India, we are already worshipping and celebrating women’s lives for more than millions of years.

But in today’s world women are made to believe they are victims of Male Dominance or Patriarchy or Brahmin Patriarchy in society. New digital media make women believe in playing victim cards.

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Choosing your correct online Music distribution and streaming service provider

Mandar Apte Apple, Apple iOS, Apple iPadOS, Apple iTunes, Apple macOS, Apple Music, Apps, Reviews Leave a comment

In old the golden days music used to come on cassettes and then compact disks (CDs).

With the evolution of better faster stable internet with Gigahertz processing power for computers better stable computer applications came along with the invention of gesture-based high-tech mobile devices like the iPhone modern always accessible pocket-friendly apps came along.

With faster 4G and 5G internet mobile data, internet-ready cloud-enabled apps came with better interactions. Even mobile devices got more than 64/128/256/500 GB and 1 TB of internal storage people will never have to come to desktop/laptop computers to back up and free up storage.

Apple first introduced Apple iTunes with a CD Ripping facility to convert already bought music cd collections to mp3 for easy listening on Mac computers and then a range of iPods. iPods don’t have to have internet in the early days then they were internet ready after a few years. The video on iPods and then an iPhone introduction.

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