Point-and-click games enable you to move a character around the screen by clicking or tapping where you want them to go. This leaves the player to focus on solving puzzles in the environment rather than worrying about navigation.
Some point-and-click games enable you to move around with a joystick, but still retain the simplicity of movement and focus on other interactions with the environment and characters of the game.
The pointing-and-clicking is also used to pick dialogue with other characters, interact with items in the world and manipulate and combine these items to solve puzzles.
Point-and-click games are often adventure experiences, but they can also be action or even platform games. Although simulation games offer a point-and-click interface, they are not usually considered part of this genre as that interaction is about controlling a world rather than moving around in it.