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On March 5th Pitchfork Media launched their newest web venture, Pitchfork.tv. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. They done a pretty extraordinary job with the detailed interaction on the site.

Right off the bat

At first load, the user is immediately immersed in video numero uno. Following the spirit of YouTubes successful auto-play feature, Pitchfork, I believe, is also providing the “Turn on the TV and watch moving pictures”. MTV? Hello? Are you watching? You should be. You’ve lost the beat ages ago.

Interaction gone wild

From an interaction design standpoint, the cats at Pitchfork have done some extremely simple, but extremely fluid and effective execution of the video experience. A simple display for the video itself, with little clutter. The only options the user is provided with is to navigation through the various site sections (again, kept to a simple number of six), and two components to the right of the video window. One provides details of the video being played, while just below they provide a YouTube style i-framed navigation mode to flip to another video.

Slide, don’t jump

My absolute favorite aspect to the interaction design and user experience provided in the site is the fact that as the user navigates through the various sections of the site (the six options at the top), they never loose a beat with the video playing. Essentially the user can navigate and search for content without losing their location. Did someone say RIA? I think this is bloody hot, and something to inspire and learn from for application.

Ultimately, they’ve done a great job keeping true to the natural video watching experience. Beyond MTV, YouTube & Flickr could learn something from these cats.