The document analyzes and compares the home page designs of three current affairs websites: The Economist, The Spectator, and Prospect. It notes that all three prominently feature a top navigation bar to help users easily find information. While The Economist and Prospect expand topics into sections on the bar, The Spectator separates topics into "Politics, Society, International" and "Arts" sections. All three sites feature topics like politics, international affairs, society, and economics. The document also examines how the sites present their magazines, with small differences in placement of options.

1. Website Research
Mahima Abedin

2. CURRENT AFFAIRS WEBSITE HOME PAGES
Each website for The Economist, The Spectator and Prospect cleverly include a navigation
bar at the top of their home page. This makes it easy for the audience to quickly find the
topic/information they are looking for due to the simple and organised layout/design.

3. COMMON ELEMENTS – NAVIGATION BAR
• On the navigation bar some current affairs websites such as The
Economist and Prospect include a menu option where topics are
expanded on and branch of into various sections.
• However, The Spectator does not have this, instead it has a specific
section labelled ‘topics’ which if you click on allows you to pick from
two options. One option enables you to read about politics, society
and international affairs meanwhile the other allows you to read abut
the arts etc. This feature caught my eye as it has a cleaner look and
completely separates hard news from softer news.
• Some common topics include: Politics, International, Society and
Economics. This would be because there are always fresh events
occurring around the world regarding these topics and so there is a
higher demand of information relating to these.
• The Economist also has a ‘Featured’ option where up-to-date and
most popular topics are discussed. The Spectator has this too but the
section is labelled ‘Today’. These sections highlight that topics such as
‘The US presidential transition’ and ‘COVID19’ are the most sought
after topics at the moment.

4. ELEMENT OF CURRENT/ARCHIVED MAGAZINES
All of these websites have the option to view their Magazines. The only
difference is that The Economist and The Spectator have this as a main option on
the navigation bar, yet Prospect has this under their drop down menu.
The Spectator and Prospect present you with their current magazine as well as their archived/previous
magazines. The current magazine on both websites are the larger ones while the archived magazines are
displayed alongside it and are much smaller. An aspect that I admire of The Prospect’s website is that it
limits you to reading three articles for free. After this if you sign up you get another seven and once this is
over you have to subscribe. This increases the engagement of the audience as a cheap and fair option is
available but once you have done this you must subscribe, increasing their profit. Similarly, The Spectator
gives you the option to register to view three articles or to subscribe in order to get a month of free
access to their magazines.
The Economist has two options once you have chosen the ‘weekly
edition’ option. One is labelled ‘current editions’ where you have the
choice of reading contemporary news; the other is ‘browse all
editions’ where you can read articles previously published. This lay
out is simple and sophisticated making it aesthetically pleasing for
the audience. Although, in order to fully read the article you must
subscribe to them unlike The Spectator and Prospect although it does
give you a preview of the article you wish to read once you have
selected it.