The work aims to systematically understand the research fields of intangible cultural heritage design in China, analyze the theoretical basis and research hotspots of intangible cultural heritage design at present, and discuss its development trend according to the current research hotspots. With related literature on intangible cultural heritage design collected by CNKI as the data source, VOSviewer and CiteSpace software were used to plot the scientific knowledge map of the literature, including the annual output distribution, research institutions and high-yield authors, the evolution and future trend of research hotspots, and the highly cited references. Finally, the research context was sorted out in the form of visual analysis. In conclusion, the results show that the literature output of intangible cultural heritage design basically shows an upward trend, but there is a downward trend in 2022. The peak of literature output occurred in 2021, reflecting that this field reached the mature stage of research in 2021. The research focuses on intangible heritage design education, intangible heritage design application, and interdisciplinary design methods. The future research development trend is Internet +, digital development and sustainable cultural inheritance. However, there are still some problems in the current research, such as little research cooperation and few high-yield authors.