Real Design Collaboration

Have you ever been working with a designer, standing or sitting by them as they work on a document? They asked for your help, so you suggested they try one thing, move another thing, rotate something, add something, etc? Or maybe you’re the one in front of the computer listening to someone else give suggestions. Wouldn’t it be easier if you both could actually work on the document at the same time? Instead of saying, “Try rotating this 3°. Try five. Okay, take it back a half of a degree,” you could just do it and see if it works.

Here’s my idea: What if designers could collaborate on a layout in real time? I don’t mean that one designer takes care of one aspect of a job, and another takes care of another aspect, then they put them together. I think it would be fantastic if I were working on a layout that was giving me trouble, and I could say to one of the other designers, “Would you jump in here with me and give me a hand?”

Here’s what I’m thinking. In a given application, for the document on which some designers want to collaborate:

• Each designer could stay at their own computer.
• Each would get a cursor, and everyone would see it. Maybe the cursors could be color coded to keep them distinct.
• Each designer would have full editing capabilities.
• When one designer selects an object or layer, that object would be locked to the other designers and specially tagged to indicate someone else is working on it.
• Each designer could be working on different objects, layers, etc. at the same time.
• A voice/video chat option would be included in case the designers are not right next to each other.

I have a feeling that this sounds like hell to some of you: There will be arguments and differences of opinion. It will get confusing with multiple people editing the same document. It would be annoying to wait while someone applis a big filter. Sure, it could be awful. But I’m not suggesting this as a regular workflow. It’s only for special projects or situations that would benefit from multiple inputs at the same time. And it would not have to be a free-for-all; designers could be civilized and take turns.

I don’t think there are any technical barriers to this type of application workflow. What are your thoughts — is it a horrible idea or a fantastic idea? What other uses for such technology can you think of?

Oh, and Adobe, are you listening?