From Inspiration to Original Handbag Design

The instructional challenge was to create a learning experience that moved beyond teaching design terminology and helped learners demonstrate a repeatable process for developing original, customer-centred handbag concepts.

I designed and developed From Inspiration to Original Handbag Design, an eight-section, self-paced online course delivered through MoodleCloud.

The course guides learners through a complete concept development process, from understanding the distinction between inspiration and imitation to analysing visual references, interpreting customer needs, exploring design alternatives and producing a final concept board.

The experience combines guided examples, visual analysis, interactive learning activities, scenario-based decision-making, downloadable worksheets and authentic assessments.

Rather than asking learners to memorise design principles, the course progressively supports them in applying those principles to an independent design challenge.

I was responsible for the end-to-end instructional design and development of the course, including:

• Defining the learning challenge, target audience and learning outcomes.

• Designing the curriculum and sequencing the learning experience.

• Developing the instructional design documentation and detailed build specifications.

• Writing learner-facing instructional content, scenarios, questions and feedback.

• Designing interactive learning activities using H5P and Moodle-native tools.

• Developing visual learning assets and downloadable learner resources.

• Creating authentic assignments, assessment rubrics and reflective activities.

• Implementing the course structure and activities in MoodleCloud.

• Completing quality control of the developed learning experience.

This was an independent portfolio project, allowing me to demonstrate the full instructional design and development process.

I organised the learning experience around six connected stages:

EXPLORE → ANALYSE → INTERPRET → TRANSLATE → CREATE → REFLECT

This structure moves learners from initial understanding to guided practice, independent application and reflective evaluation.

1. Making abstract concepts visible

Originality and design interpretation can be difficult to teach through explanation alone.

I used a recurring architectural inspiration source and handbag concept to demonstrate how visual observations could be transformed into design decisions.

Learners could follow the relationship between the original building, the visual principles identified, the initial sketches and the refined handbag concept.

This continuity helped make the design process visible.

2. Providing a repeatable analytical framework

I developed the learning experience around the S.H.A.P.E. framework:

• S — Silhouette

• H — Harmony

• A — Architecture

• P — Pattern

• E — Emotion

The framework gives learners a structured way to examine inspiration sources and identify characteristics that might inform an original design.

Interactive hotspots, examples and worksheets reinforce the framework before learners apply it independently.

3. Connecting design decisions to real needs

I introduced Nia, a fictional Lagos-based professional, as a recurring customer persona.

Nia's lifestyle, work requirements, belongings and preferences provide a practical context for design decisions.

Learners move beyond selecting attractive shapes and colours to considering comfort, organisation, functionality, professional identity and versatility.

The customer scenario supports a more purposeful approach to product design.

4. Supporting exploration before commitment

Learners practise the sequence OBSERVE → ABSTRACT → TRANSLATE before developing three alternative handbag concepts.

The activity encourages learners to explore multiple interpretations of the same inspiration source rather than commit immediately to their first idea.

The concepts are compared against customer needs, originality and design coherence before one direction is selected for refinement.

5. Making design decisions consequential

The Design Decision Lab presents choices relating to silhouette, materials and signature details.

Learners consider how individual decisions affect the overall concept and receive feedback that connects their choices to design principles.

This shifts the emphasis from recognising a correct answer to understanding the reasoning behind a design decision.

6. Assessing authentic performance

The final assessment requires learners to develop an original handbag concept board based on their own inspiration source.

The deliverable includes a visual analysis, customer brief, three annotated thumbnail sketches, refined concept, material and hardware selections, signature detail and written design rationale.

The final concept board accounts for 40% of the planned course grade.

An analytic rubric evaluates the quality of the learner's inspiration analysis, customer-centred thinking, originality, design coherence, visual communication and written justification.

The final reflection activity, weighted at 10%, asks learners to evaluate their achievements and create a practical development plan.

Accessibility and learner support were considered throughout the design.

The course includes structured navigation, clear instructions, readable instructional content, downloadable resources and alternatives to purely digital sketching.

Assessment instructions and rubrics communicate expectations before submission.

The course also uses guided practice before independent performance to support learners who are less experienced in formal design processes.

These design provisions form part of the course's accessibility approach; they do not, on their own, establish formal WCAG conformance.

This project demonstrates how a practical creative skill can be transformed into a structured online learning experience.

A central design decision was to make the learner's reasoning visible at every stage, rather than focus only on the quality of the final product.

The recurring architectural example, customer persona, guided design choices and authentic assessment helped connect abstract principles with observable performance.

The project also strengthened my approach to designing for learner independence. By combining structured support with opportunities for personal interpretation, I created a course in which learners are progressively responsible for their own creative decisions.

A future evaluation would examine whether learners can independently apply the same process to unfamiliar inspiration sources and whether the framework improves the quality and clarity of their design rationales.