Mandar Apte

UI/UX Designer from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Category: Personal Experience

  • What Special Legal Rights That Muslim Exercise in India That allows them to call any fellow Kafir A ‘Shaitan’. My first-hand experience with Mongini’s Muslim Employee.

    What Special Legal Rights That Muslim Exercise in India That allows them to call any fellow Kafir A ‘Shaitan’. My first-hand experience with Mongini’s Muslim Employee.

    Background

    There has been a Monginis cake shop in my area for 15+ years.

    I used to eat chocolate cakes in the same shop.

    However, after a few interactions, I started experiencing irregularities, hindrances or arrogance by the shopkeeper when you asked for the order. Sometimes, an older person who is supposed to be a shop owner will insult you or talk rashly in English to sound excellent and non-offensive on the part of the shopkeeper.

    After a few interactions in the first 5/6 years, I never went back to shopping again to eat cakes.

    So here I am documenting my first-hand experiences with Monginis Cake Shop in my area.

    First Experience:

    So it was the same shopkeeper I mentioned above when I went to the same shop in the early years there was a single cake remaining in one rack which was four weeks old and past the date of expiry written on its label.

    So, by choice, I told him to give me a different cake to eat, which was very fresh as per the date mentioned on its label.

    But in difference or kind hate about maybe Marathi speaking locals or perhaps ignorance of health issues will that person have or sake selling cakes without thinking about society health he didn’t bother to give a cake that I chose which was same day delivered. Still, he offered me a cake that was four weeks old. So I told him I ordered a different cake, and you gave me a rotten one, which is four weeks old. He said it doesn’t matter, eat it. Nothing will happen to you.

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  • The Mentality of the Backward Class in Bharat Today. The reality of Asking for Free Reservations and Free Employment.

    The Mentality of the Backward Class in Bharat Today. The reality of Asking for Free Reservations and Free Employment.

    Background

    I have been Brahman since birth. For the last 40 years, I have heard that a girl/boy from Brahman cast the lost Medical College Admission seat even though she got 99.95% in 12th. Then she told me that in the reserve/backward cast merit list, admission got closed at 50%. The same is true in college admissions related to the engineering field.

    There is one side more dominated by the Political Agenda that the backward class community deserve or holds the first right to educational and professional opportunities in India than other equal citizens of different casts. The reason they feel everything they say is valid is that the backward class was kept depressed and oppressed by the higher class, specifically by Brahmans. They feel Brahmans are the ones who deny them the right to education and keep them oppressed for thousands of years.

    Then came reality when I, as a human being, was seen by backward-class individuals as a target because they got where they are today, i.e. being backward class. Then these people start shitting on Brahman rituals, men/women how they are sexually and morally corrupt.

    I experience this in the workplace, Mumbai local trains, colleges and schools.

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  • GEP Company Review – My experience with Brahmin Hatred, Insult, Frustration, and Abuse because of untrustworthy Managers and irresponsible Human Resource Managers

    GEP Company Review – My experience with Brahmin Hatred, Insult, Frustration, and Abuse because of untrustworthy Managers and irresponsible Human Resource Managers

    Background:

    I joined GEP (Global eProcure) company as a UI Designer in 2015.

    The company was overstaffed or overcrowded as they planned to buy two more floors in the same building. But it used to be seen as a time profitability of the company.

    In a few weeks, I realised the company app we designed and developed was unstable and lousy by performance vice. And we were losing customers every day. In the words of the company’s current clients, they can’t even interact as the development team used multiple external frameworks on every page rather than inline coding it by themselves. It seems an analytical page that the company app’s essential feature took more than fifteen minutes to load, which should be not more than five seconds or less.

    There were multiple Usability issues, such as an add user form with hundreds of input fields, no autocomplete, no progress bar, and no step-by-step wizard-type interface so that the user can take a break or complete tasks later. With this, a minute inactivity threshold was added by developers, which caused users to be unable to use the app. This company hired its staff to feed data rather than fix the product, as its clients can’t use it.

    So it was messy. On the outside, the company was on a hiring spree with a shiny face outside. But inside, all was screwed up. And things were going downstream towards hell.

    During this period, suddenly, we as a designing team got to know from our current manager, Mr Muthu, that a new UXD Manager will lead us from the next minute, and HR has arranged for a meeting with the team in the next three minutes.

    We learned the new Manager was Mr. Roy. Our old demoted Manager was shaken inside.

    My interaction with my old manager was abusive. He used to spit curses at every member with statements like design should be wow, मजा नही आ राहा है, i.e., In a word, it should look like interfaces designed by Apple or Microsoft UXD Team. The new manager even outsourced design to Microsoft’s Consultant for around fifty lakhs. But the result was a failure, with the money going for no good.

    The Real Story:

    In this ugly environment. I was having lunch with my team one fine day. A man almost my age was sitting before me named Mr Kadam. He suddenly started abusing my Brahmin Cast with statements I will list below in numbers.

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  • Betting your company on Metaverse AR/VR Craze

    Betting your company on Metaverse AR/VR Craze

    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

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

    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

    Web/Mobile App Monetisation & Revenue Generation Strategies

    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

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

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

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

    A Way of American Life: My First Experience of Indian Citizen Going Abroad

    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.

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

    It was the year 2012 when discussions about my marriage started happening in my home. Proposals of engagement between the prospective bride and me 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 seven friends, including girls and boys, were having a divorce for unknown reasons.

    1. One girl was proposed to on Facebook she accepted it when they had their real-life engagement ceremony. Unfortunately, her groom’s previous girlfriend showed up to stop that engagement as the groom had been having an 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 cooked or did home-related tasks or never showed the night at home after time out. Then when my friend encountered her for asking about divorce and breaking the marriage, she told him she would launch a law suite and a police case for defamation, sexual harassment and abuse. Moreover, she wanted marriage alimony of 50 lakhs.
    3. One of my friend’s husband was not doing any job and was physically abusing her 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 had multiple sexual encounters with his female friends before marriage, so he wanted a bride that accepted that allowed 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 broke as the bride stopped talking with him and her parents. But after two or three months, he got a job in a better company with a more excellent salary. So if the bride understood the situation of a lost job, then disengagement of marriage would not have happened.
    7. One of my friend’s brides was suspicious and doubtful about 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. So 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

    International Women’s Day and the Significance of Indian / Hindu Sanatan Sanskriti or Culture

    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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