The work aims to analyze and reflect on the literature on participatory design (PD) theory formation and practice, to solve three problems:why PD, which has weakened the concept of "participation", is used in projects that emphasize "participatory" design, what is the premise of PD practice in business environment and whether the core idea of PD should be sorted according to some indicators. The PD-related research literature included in the Web of Science database was screened, and the four stages of PD research were divided by the natural breaking point classification method. Through the CiteSpace tool, the important literature in each development stage was screened and qualitatively analyzed. The development process and core concepts of PD were sorted out, the essence of PD was obtained, the gap between PD practice and PD theory was analyzed, and the future research direction of PD was pointed out. The essence of PD is the expression of culture and politics in design. The use of PD in design projects may be for procedural justice. "Usefulness" is the premise of PD practice in business environment. It is reasonable and useful to rank the core concepts of PD.