One of the biggest new features for our new website is the introduction of Product Pages. There is a lot to take in here, so please read carefully.
What is a Product Page?
Simply put, any product we talk about on FSElite will now have a product page. The product page will be it’s own ‘hub’ for all the latest information posted to FSElite about each specific product.
Important: Not every product released for flight simulation is given a product page. Only products we specifically have mentioned in an article or similar will be here. This would honestly be an impossibility considering the number of outlets and products made daily.
What’s on a Product Page?
At the launch of our new website, we list the following information on a product page:
- Developer (including developer icon)
- Product Name
- Date added to the product database
- Date modified
- Release status (released, announced, cancelled, unknown)
- Type of product (aircraft, airport, scenery or utility)
- Platforms (note that some products are platform specific and will have their own page for that particular platform)
- Product information – brief description
- Product qualities (this is limited, but will tell you what features the product typically has)
In addition to some basic information, we also list the latest content for each product. Check out this post on Orbx’s Brisbane River Run for an example.
More Detailed Product Pages?
Yes, they are on our roadmap and will be coming in the future. We intend on making product pages a great resource of information. Here are some examples of what we’re considering for the future:
- Image and video galleries
- User-generated content
- Product ratings
- Filter content
- Add to your personal product library
Our Content Will Link to Product Pages
At the base of each content post, you will see a new section called In This Article which will highlight topics or talking points related to that particular piece of content. In addition, you will find a list of products that were mentioned in the article. In this example from Honeycomb’s FlightSimExpo display, you can see we listed multiple products that were mentioned in the article.
This will hopefully give you the ability to stay informed about the latest products that interest you the most.
Product Database and Searching
Along with individual product pages, you will now be able to search our entire product database. At the time of writing, we have over 1500 products. Our intention is to update the products regularly with the latest release and announcements.
On our new Product Archive, you can see the latest releases, releases by developers, and also broken down per platform. In the platform pages, you can also then select a number of filters such as the type of product and sort it in a particular order.
We’ll be expanding this functionality to give you a better tool once we get feedback from the community.
More Features to Come
This is the first iteration of our entry into providing a comprehensive product database for the community. We have learned many lessons over the years, but are confident we have the foundations to create something great for the community.
We’ll be seeking feedback to make our product section even greater in the future.
