Assignment 3 - Design Safari

People-watching. Oh yes! So this assignment was all about observing people in their surroundings (a public place of our choice in this case). Thinking about how they act, how they go about using services, taking notes about how they interact with people and things as well as observing their behaviour and why they do the things they do. I think this must be the most enjoyable & satisfying assignment yet! People-watching is a secret passion of many people, I’m sure, and for myself this time was no exception.


I decided a good place to do my observations was in my workplace as I could easily take notes in between serving customers and smiling until my face hurts! I work in a Dundee restaurant which is regularly very busy, which gave me the opportunity to observe a wide variety of different people and hopefully make it easy to see any trends occurring throughout using this service.

Something I had noticed in my own experience of visiting the restaurant prior to working there as well as observing customers for myself was that walking through the entrance of the building people immediately seemed alert and aware of their change in surroundings. The atmosphere throughout the restaurant was “buzzing” and very lively, not particularly warm, welcoming, nor was it very homely or enticing at first. I had noticed that when people entered the restaurant their first reaction was hesitation, unsure whether to approach the desk or wait for a member of staff to approach them.

There is no specific 'landing strip' as you enter the restaurant, meaning customers do not have much time to adjust to their new surroundings. They are immediately faced with their role of being the customer. There is a few metres from the entrance to the bar/till area but no signs to indicate if customers should wait to be ‘seen to’ or spoken to/greeted by a member of staff. This seemed to be an obvious design flaw and seemed to cause unease and slight hesitation, not helped by the fact that the environment they have just walked into was very busy and lively. The bar and banisters etc. Are particularly high which I would imagine gives the customer a feeling of being blocked off and creating, in theory, a wall between the customer and staff. The interior is random and cluttered with a mass of objects crammed into every nook & cranny which can be a bit intimidating to the majority of people when beginning their dinning experience although through their experience they seem to become accustomed to the theme and perceive it to be more homely as many of the objects found in the restaurant, on the walls and shelf’s, are things you may find at home. There are a lot of old fashioned items/artefacts around the restaurant which reminded me of things maybe my grandparents may have owned a long time ago. If I take this from the objects around the restaurant it’s highly possible others took the same from it, giving them a feeling of familiarity and homeliness.



Something which baffled me was the toilet situation. On entering the building ahead of you there is quite a large sign, lit up saying ‘TOILET’, above an open door. Now you could be forgiven for thinking that this is a perfectly clearly indication that to get to the toilet you would enter through this door, but I soon realised that this is an obvious design flaw. When entering a restaurant the first thing you are looking to do is to be greeted by a member of staff to ask if there is a table available, generally it is not to identify where the toilet is or for that matter go straight to the toilet, therefore, although there is a fairly large sign telling the customer where the toilet is it is being ignored as it is in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is the only sign throughout the restaurant indicating where the toilet is situated and I found myself many a time explaining to the customers where to go.

When confirming/asking the manager about seating customers for example, a customer was asked to wait for a minute or two whilst the waiter/waitress speaks to the manager and the customer seems happy to wait. I also noticed that when approaching a group of diners on their entrance into the premises, there tends to be a ‘leader’ of the pack whom will normally stand at the front of the group, as the organiser. For example when a group of two adults, a woman possibly in her late 30’s and a gentleman, dressed quite professionally, maybe in his mid 40’s accompanied by three children around 6-7 years old, entered the restaurant the waitress approached the male. I would understand this as the gentleman seems to be again the ‘leader’, the one in charge.

On a busy weekend night asking them to wait at the entrance can cause it to get cluttered with people making customers feel cramped and uncomfortable, people like their own personal space and when this is invaded they become uneasy and anxious. I noticed that when there are too many customers standing at the inside entrance, potential customers approach and then walk off thinking that it is far too busy to get a table. To help ease awkwardness of the personal space issue, customers are seated at bar tables while they wait on a table becoming available. Staff take their drinks order which makes the customer feel more at ease and feel like they are actually getting nearer to getting their table and that they are not just being ignored or neglected.

When being seated the waitress asked to take the customers jackets and hang them up, most customers said no politely and hang them on back of their chair (they seemed to get some sort of comfort from this, they don’t want to part with their possessions, maybe at t his point they are still unsure of their surroundings). The customer settles into their seat/table, they may look around a few times to check out who is in close proximity – if it’s a big loud group of people they seemed more uneasy with this than they would do with maybe one or two people at the tables around them. They want to know who are surrounding them, who are in their personal space, and whether they are likely to be a threat. ....


When they are seated comfortably and have decided on their order the usual diner adopts an unwritten rule which is “they have a little chat once they are ready to order”, “close the menu or stop paying attention to it”, “looking around” (maybe at staff to get eye contact and indicate that they are ready to order or checking out where the toilets are for future reference) or “deep in conversation with the person/people they are sitting with”. These are all well known rituals and are quite amusing to witness. Another quite amusing ritual is when the customer wants attention... they raise their neck and chin into the air and raise their eyebrows once eye contact has been made with the waitress. Another is “the discreet nod” this is to beckon the waitress and indicate that they want your service/attention and that they are ready for you now.


By this time the diner is quite happily tucking into their meal and is now in a more relaxed state, it is at this point they are more likely to attempt to have a conversation with the waiter/waitress and the response they get usually determines the size of the tip if any the diner will leave. Of course the size of monetary gratuity makes no difference to the dinning experience the diner is offered as they are all treated the same.

 Big groups are slightly different; they become bolder and more rowdy in a pack. To begin with staff get ignored more and they show signs of ignorance but as the group become more accustomed to their surroundings and drink is flowing freely they can get more out-of-hand, especially groups of same sex diners tending to flirt with the waiter/waitress and can get a bit mischievous although the manager is usually at hand to put them in their place.

 I also noticed that, when the manager talks to the customer, maybe about a problem with their meal for example, he will crouch down beside the customer, using his hand on the table to balance. It seems as if the manager is allowing the customer to believe they have control, that he is lowering himself to show the that he is listening to what the customer has to say. The customer is always right, as they say, where as if the manger was to stand, towering over the customer whilst speaking to them it may be intimidating for them. After all our job is to service the public and keep them happy.
 “Paying of the bill” is another quite amusing ritual to witness whereby the following takes place. The diner has decided its time to pay, and here they use the “airborne cheque signing routine” this is signalling to the waiter/waitress by scribbling on their hand (which is usually raised in an uncomfortable manner) as if writing an imaginary cheque when actually they are commanding that they want their bill brought over to them. With cheque writing more or less obsolete I doubt diners would enact the “pretending to punch digits on a chip & pin machine” as this could easily be misrepresented as rude pointing. Waving politely and simultaneously mouthing “can I have the bill please” is another tactic adopted by diners. All are acceptable but amusing for any onlookers to witness.

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I have still to add to this post :) ...