Sociology of Usability

Usability testing, for me is a practice that stands at the cusp of engineering and social science: engineering because it tends to be normative in its aspects (we have guidelines for testing, heuristic evaluation, and walkthroughs), but at the same time it is an approximation that tends to account for users’ ease of interaction. It is with this involvement of user that the idea of ‘social’ is implied.

In Post-Modern Usability, Lund makes an interesting point about the evolving status of usability as a practice. He points out that usability has taken a leap from what used to be purely error-fixing to “embracing existential understanding of the user […].” It is in this sense that usability has afforded a sociological lens into what was originally seen positivistic.
The fact that there is a ‘human’ element in the ‘science’ of usability, it opens up to lot a more challenges than what it would in the context of a clinical investigation of laboratory set up. As such, I see usability as contingent on factors that cannot be and ought not to be controlled by its practitioners. If Lund’s claim of “existential understanding” is an acceptable starting point of our (post-modern) definition of usability, then for me, it is important that I consider ‘situation’ as a strong factor. This situational factor could range from user’s psychographic and demographic background to the site of testing including its attendant conditions.

Hence, my question is as we start to implement our testing, is it possible to manage and take these contingencies and situations into account. To what extent can we except to have these existential elements considered for before or during our testing?
Also, as we implement our task-oriented approach in testing, are we implicitly arrogating ourselves into the process, or is there still a room for the unforeseen.
Finally, as I perceive (though of course with a beginner’s vision) usability testing as the intermediary between what is known (past and present) and what is unknown (future) from the user’s point of view, where is it heading as far as this approximation is understood.