Finally, you wind your way successfully through the maze, find the jeans, and head to the cashier. Only it turns out that to reach the cashier, you've got to go through yet another maze. Many users experience exactly this kind of rigmarole when they navigate the Web to make an online purchase. Usability is the practice of designing and architecting websites to focus on the user's experience, first and foremost. The practice of usability attempts to remove the user from the maze of a poorly architected website, and deliver them straight to the cheese instead.
Usability is necessarily the next level in the Web's evolution.
In the Web's early history, companies were just scrambling to get online, without much practical experience of how to design a site's architecture and navigation scheme to best serve users. Designers created front-ends that looked good, but navigation and overall usability were all too often an afterthought. The practice of usability seeks to rectify that problem. Websites with deep content and functionality can now be redesigned, shifting the focus onto helping users easily navigate the site, and swiftly accomplish specific tasks. In this latest phase of the Web's evolution, usability isn't just a high-minded concept any more.