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Investigating The Interaction Between People With The Surrounding Built Environment

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The purpose of observational methods is to investigate the interaction between people with the surrounding built environment, thus when researching food marketing along Ecclesall Road, the aim of the observation was to see whether restaurants with different marketing techniques attracted contrasting demographic profiles. While observing the marketing techniques and customer base, photographs were taken that documented the feature of interest, including whether outside seating facilities were being used and how the menu was presented to potential customers.
This highlighted weaknesses associated with observation, firstly although the observation was performed after 17:00 on a weekday evening when people finish work and dine, most of the restaurants observed were very empty, with some appearing closed to the public. Consequently, the aim of the observation could not be achieved, as there were too few customers to make note of demographics. Thus photographs, an integral part of observation, could not illustrate how successful the marketing was being and whether it was increasing trade. The images could not capture movement or change, meaning as soon as one restaurant had been observed, customers could have entered but the researchers remained oblivious.
Another weakness of the method, as a result of cameras being used, was that the covert nature of the observation was breached. As a consequence of restaurant owners seeing people taking photographs of their property, they

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