Comparing Screen-Based Version Control to Augmented Artifact Version Control for Physical Objects.

Besides referring to digital twins, the iterative development of physical objects cannot be easily managed in version control systems. However, physical content also could benefit from versioning for structured work and collaborative uses, thereby increasing equality between digital and physical design. Hence, it needs to be investigated what kind of system is most suitable for supporting a physical object version control. Focusing on the visualization of differences between states of a physical artifact, two systems were compared against each other in a lab study: a screen-based solution optimized for 3D models as baseline and an approach that augments a physical artifact with digital information as hypothesis. Our results indicate that the Augmented Artifact system is superior in task completion time but scores a lower usability rating than the baseline. Based on the results, we further provide design considerations for building a physical object version control system.