Diegetic Innovation Templating

In this paper we describe a process called Diegetic Innovation Templating (DiT) whereby science fiction and fantasy stories are used as a systematic source of ideas for design and product innovation. We also introduce a concept called the Diegetic Gap which acts a metric for assessing how compatible a particular piece of fiction is to a given innovation space. We illustrate the Diegetic Innovation Templating process using an example from a fashion house that specializes in creating leading-edge designs for women's clothing.