Innovative product design is essentially an activity involving creative cognitive thinking. Therefore, research on the innovative design process and of methods, computer-aided innovation tools should be conducted based on systematic exploration based on the principles of innovative cognitive thinking. We aim to uncover some general principles that can serve as a systematic thinking framework for product designers, provide a feasible framework and method of innovative thinking for designers, and provide theoretical and methodological support for further development of computer-aided innovation platforms. This paper summarizes the sources and content of studies on the idea generation and design processes behind product innovation. Specifically, we break down the general innovative design process of products, outlining the cognitive mechanisms and propose an integrated application strategy that incorporates multiple methods. And taking "the solution program to the coking of oily sludge pyrolysis equipment" as an example, this paper demonstrated and verified the effectiveness and practicability of the method and strategy proposed. Based on the results on improvements in the equipment, the designers put forward some creative and implementable design schemes. The entire thinking process was relatively smooth and efficient. The example presented in this paper shows that the proposed method can effectively guide/assist/motivate designers to think creatively.
Keywords: Innovative design; cognitive; multi-method integrating; oily sludge coking.