As for the key areas of the industrial design application, at the moment they can be identified rather arbitrarily:
• Transport equipment: aerospace and air transport, cars and trucks, railway transport, etc .;
• Means of production: industrial equipment, professional computer equipment, etc .;
• Specialized medical equipment: bionic prostheses, various catheters, etc .;
• Consumer goods: household electrical appliances, household computer equipment, furniture, stationery, etc.
In many ways, the development of industrial design depends on the emergence of new materials with special properties (and accordingly, methods of their processing), which allow to improve the functional and aesthetic properties of the products produced, including the visual and sensory components. Today, one of the advanced materials are various composites (for example, metal composites, information composites with sensor elements, etc.). As for new ways of processing materials, of course, first of all, additive technologies (3D and 4D printing).
An interesting fact is that the customers of industrial design, according to analytical agencies, today are not only manufacturers, but also various international organizations, as well as the state (in particular, these are socially significant projects related, for example, to improving the architectural environment or improving living conditions for people with disabilities).