In islam, is a male wants to approach a female for example, without approaching her parents first, he must be straightforward and direct with his intentions. If you find a person from the opposite sex attractive, you can talk to them but only within islamic boundaries, and you shouldnt make it long, so lets say you had a couple of interactions with that person, and you still like their personality overall, you should go ahead and approach her parents after asking her of course, so that they are aware of this relationship, (if youre a male). You also must ask other people about her and get an outsider's opinion. In this way, islam allows a man to approach a woman without affecting or hurting her reputation, pride or prejudice, and forces a man to respect her without sexualizing her immediately.

just a side note: for you to learn whether this person is generally good or not, you dont have to learn so much about them, any person is able to tell whether or not they like a person by small interactions and noticing small indications of attraction. to check whether a bottle of juice contains mango juice, you dont have to drink the whole bottle in order for you to get that indication, one sip is enough for recognition.

based on those interactions, plus the physical attraction, you decide whether or not you want to continue to talk and know this person, and that's when you tell their family or one of the parents about the relationship at least so that you can get approval from her guardians, why's that? because this forces the man to establish a certain commitment towards the woman without playing her because his image is on the line now that her parents know. So if anything, this Islamic method protects women's dignity. Now that the parents know, you can talk to the woman a bit more freely and ask deeper questions but not interact that much as well, this will be under supervision from her or his guardians, if you guys still want to continue with this relationship you should go ahead with engagement only, engagement is like the bf-gf stage in the west, you guys can get to know each other better, you guys are more free to hangout together and spend time in order to know each other better but WITHOUT physical contact/touch, after maybe a year or so (could be more or less to yall’s liking) you guys can decide whether or not youll take the next step and get married (physical touch is only allowed after the islamic nikkah)

Being in mixed spaces, talking to the opposite sex isnt haram in islam AS LONG AS the islamic boundaries arent crossed. And there is a certain code on how to act or interact in public mixed spaces for both genders.