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?