Vision:

Amazing, period. I love the tabs idea. But would you be able to delete individual updates from the deviation? How about prints? Would we be able to have multiple versions of the same picture available in the shop, in case somebody prefers one over the other? Would there be individual artist's comments for each version, or the same?

Originality:

The best idea I've seen on this site in a very, very long time. I've never seen or imagined anything like it, here, and I think it would become a staple to many artists, myself included.

Technique:

This one doesn't really work here. So I'm giving you a neutral score.

Impact:

I don't think you realize just how much this means to most of the artists here. Sure, we can show the minor changes we make to our art. But we can also keep our comics in one deviation without an enormous load time. We can show the evolution of our characters by updating their references without deleting the old ones. We can show work progressing from sketch to finished. And it would be amazing for step-by-step tutorials.

Overall, this would be an excellent addition to the site. I would love to see this installed. Lord knows I'd use it.

The full-impact of this idea didn't resonate with me until I started reading some of the comments, it was then I realized how useful a feature like this could be. The first group of people I imagine could benefit from this are digital artist. I've seen a few galleries where artist post line-art, then perhaps a rough coloring job, and finally a finished piece.

Being able to simply click through different versions of the same piece of work could be very beneficial to both the artist and those viewing the image. The quality of the feedback they receive could potentially increase as people may ask more questions about how the artist was able to go from one version to the next.

This could also be great for the literature community. Sometimes you may have a rough idea or concept you are working on, but not a completely polished piece. A feature like this may also inspire more discussion about a certain deviation as well.

Giving the user control of whether or not to add an update to the version history is definitely key, as you wouldn't want it to become like Wikipedia where every revision is listed in the history.

This is a great idea for a feature, and it isn't something too far-fetched either. It would take a bit of work, but from the mock-up you presented it seems like this would fit seamlessly into the submission process for new deviations.