Art & Design

Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities, usually involving imaginative or technical skill. Design is the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system (as in architectural blueprints, engineering drawings, business processes, circuit diagrams and sewing patterns). Design has different connotations in different fields. In some cases the direct construction of an object (as in pottery, engineering, management, cowboy coding and graphic design) is also considered to be design.

Is photography as an art form still relevant today?

October 1, 2023October 1, 2023 Mandar Apte Art & Design, Photography Leave a comment

As far as I remember, we used to have Display, Illustration, Calligraphy/Typography, Photography and Print as specialisation subjects for the BFA Applied Art graduation course.

Even I preferred Illustrations over Photography. And my decision still stands true today.

Before choosing Photography for your life-long venture, let me explain a few points I want you to consider.

Is Photography Artform or Just Technique?:
What first thing you do in photography today is you have to buy a camera first. Now, all are digital cameras, so choosing a lens, filter, and measuring light can be fixed at a later stage. Post-production is dominating over pre-production and production planning. It is supposed to be Preproduction, i.e. Planning should be 80 or 90% of your time. Production should take, i.e. Actual execution should be 5% of the time. And post-production time should be 5% or nil as you have already planned everything. But it is precisely the opposite now.

Modern Mobile Phones:
Apple iPhone 15 Cameras with Massive Storage And production quality apps available at your fingertips. All apps are almost free.

Photo Sharing Web & Mobile Apps:
With Instagram, we hardly visit real-world exhibitions happening around the locality. Now, everyone posts their photos on Instagram and other social networks.

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

March 24, 2023April 6, 2023 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 snacked and drank 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 had been charged INR 100 for tipping the driver for a safe ride. In disbelief, I thought about how that happened, as I was not planning to tip the driver.

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Betting your company on Metaverse AR/VR Craze

March 24, 2023April 6, 2023 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 my experience

In 2009 I worked 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 standard competitive tool used in both domains.

I was using an iMac at that time. Adobe After Effects was bundled in Creative Suite, 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 early 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, which was a waste of time and energy. The software skill you acquired doesn’t exist in the world, or there is no demand for your talent 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

March 16, 2023April 6, 2023 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 has existed in India and World longer than I know, but I learned of it at my first job around 2007. I am a multidisciplinary designer.

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

HFI has three main 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 following year, they increased rice to almost INR 1,20,000/-.

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Web/Mobile App Monetisation & Revenue Generation Strategies

March 13, 2023April 17, 2023 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 Product.

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

But if you are a product company, you create a product based on your market and user research. You find consumer problems/requirements/gaps in the market and then 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

March 10, 2023April 15, 2023 Mandar Apte Apple, Apple iOS, Apple watchOS, Apps, Art & Design, Company, Hardware, Inspiration, Personal Experience, Reviews, User Experience Design Leave a comment

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

I have used 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 the operating system, 2GB was for Apps that were able to fit it, 2GB was for Photos that I captured, then I had 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 had sciatica. So I used to walk for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening or night. So I just walked 850 kilometres in a month to eliminate sciatica pain. I used to maintain my diary of walking approx kilometre completed in a day/week/month/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 to track my outdoor walking exercises, ECG, Heart Rate Monitoring, Calory burning, Exercise hours tracking, Standup Hours tracking, receiving notifications, receiving phone calls on my watch, reading SMS/Messages on my watch itself etc.

I was thrilled.

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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In-depth Review of Matrimony Website by Anuroop Wiwaha (anuroopwiwaha.com)

May 9, 2022April 16, 2023 Mandar Apte Apps, Art & Design, Company, India / Bharat / Hindusthan, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Personal Experience, Reviews, User Experience Design, Web Design 1 Comment

I have used the Anuroop Wiwaha Matrimony Website for the last four to five years. In addition, I have extensively used their mobile Apple iPhone app and website for my bride search. As a result, I discovered a few points that Anuroop Wiwaha Portal / Company improved upon to help the community get the right matrimony match for their search.

Observations:

Few Points that they can improve on.

Mobile App & Website Portal:

At every event, they talk about having 20,000 Profiles / Accounts of the bride and groom registered on their portal. An average Anuroop Wiwaha account cost is INR 5,000/-.
The user (Bride or Groom) can’t register with a free account as they don’t support free accounts. The user must pay an account fee upfront before registering to the portal. So it gives assurance that the user is at least serious about their search, and even the user has to submit identity proof within seven days of registration. So in a way, it eliminates the possibility of fake accounts or fraud.
Even with this money of 20,000 Accounts * 5,000 Fee, the Bride or Groom Search is cumbersome and hectic. The mobile app is not full fledge as compared to a web portal. They use non-native software technologies for the Apple iPhone app, which takes minutes or sometimes fails to load content and data.

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Let’s learn how to use the ‘Meta Theme Color’ tag to colourise Apple Safari 15 user interface tailored for the website.

October 23, 2021October 23, 2021 Mandar Apte Apple, Apple iOS, Apple macOS, Art & Design, Tutorials, Web Design Leave a comment

Apple Safari has started supporting theme-color Meta Tag from Safari 15 release.

Here is how to Implement theme-color meta tag in HTML.

You have to copy-paste theme-color meta tag in section of your website. It will look something like this:

<head>
<meta name="theme-color" content="#ff0000"/>
</head>

You can use the following code to implement theme color specific to system light mode or dark mode.

<meta name="theme-color" content="#ff0000" media="(prefers-color-scheme: light)">
<meta name="theme-color" content="#ff0000" media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)">

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What is a suitable tool for UI/UX Work: Adobe Photoshop / XD / Sketch / Figma

August 17, 2021April 25, 2023 Mandar Apte Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Apps, Art & Design, Reviews, User Experience Design Leave a comment

As far as I can remember, I have used Photoshop from version two. So I have used Photoshop for almost twenty years, less or more.

I have been using the Sketch app for four years. And just now, because of team recommendations, I have to switch to Figma.

The most problematic point about Photoshop or XD is Adobe’s pricing model. Adobe forces you to buy all Creative Cloud apps whether you choose them or not. In India, Adobe CC costs INR 45,000/- plus taxes.

The best thing about the Sketch app is its pricing model, i.e. Annual Subscription, which costs you INR 7,500/- for a year, and after it ends, you use the same app as long as you want without buying another subscription. So yes, you will not get updates, but you have an app to work with.

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