This study employs bibliometric analysis to explore the research trends and developments of Design Issues over the past decade, focusing on its research priorities and close connection to the topic of “social sustainability”. Using tools such as CiteSpace and VOSviewer, the study generates a series of visual knowledge maps, including keyword co-occurrence networks and highly cited literature distributions, to comprehensively illustrate the journal’s academic contributions over the past ten years. The findings reveal that authors of Design Issues have demonstrated a strong interest in the theory and practice of “social design”, leveraging this focus to advance social sustainability from a design perspective. Finally, the study discusses the journal’s exploration of “sustainability”, particularly through the lens of “social design”, examining its relevance to “social sustainability” values from both design methodology and design practice perspectives, provides unique insights and perspectives on the broader discourse of “sustainability”.