Since the Industrial Revolution, various design ideas have undergone many explorations and changes. We can roughly classify industrial product design ideas into the following five categories.

1. Art-centric design

This is a design idea handed down in the 19th century.

2. Design for machines and technology

With machine and technical efficiency as the main purpose, people are regarded as part of the machine system, or people are regarded as a kind of production tool, and people are required to adapt to the machine. This kind of design thinking is called machine-centered theory or technology-centered theory, and labor or ergonomics in some countries is centered on this kind of thinking. The basis of machine-centered theory is scientific determinism and technological determinism.

3. Design ideas to stimulate consumption

Also known as popular style design. It emphasizes constantly stimulating consumers with new styles, putting beautiful coats on products, regardless of product function and quality. Its purpose is to encourage consumers to follow the new trend and abandon the old style, and promote the increase in market sales. This is a manifestation of "design styles follow sales". Its characteristics are mainly manifested in three aspects: one is the abolition of functionality, the other is the abolition of style, and the third is the abolition of quality.

4. Human-centered design

Human-oriented design emphasizes design for human needs. For example, German functionalism, European humanistic design, Italian and Japanese post-modern design, human-centered labor (excluding ergonomics), German action theory (psychology), and cognitive psychology.

5. Nature-centrism

Mankind has gradually realized the catastrophic damage to the natural environment and resources brought about by the rapid development of the world economy after the Industrial Revolution. Designers began to regard human social life as a part of the entire natural environment, considering the long-term survival of mankind, and designing and exploring around environmental protection, ecological protection, and sustainable development. These design explorations have become a design trend since the 1980s. The main design theories include green design, ecological design, circular design and combination design.

The value sources and design goals of these five major design ideas are different. The difference between these design ideas is often not in what objects are designed, but in why the design is designed and how to design, and various design knowledge, theories and methods are established from these values and goals.