How do you make complex designs faster?

If you'll forgive the shameless self-promotion, I have two blog posts about this.

Managing the Complexity of Branching Scenarios is like the title says: tips for managing the complexity and keeping it from getting out of control.

I also have a post breaking down the time to create branching scenarios. Like a lot of things in ID, the answer is always "it depends," but the examples show how the size, multimedia, and other factors affect the writing and development time.

You can access lots of template slides from the Content Library.

If you find an interaction you like, you can redesign it to match your company standards. Then save it as your own template for future use. 

There are also lots of examples/templates throughout the Forum, especially in the eLearning Challenge area.

Another tip for improving efficiency: give everything a meaningful name. It's a lot easier to edit and to troubleshoot when objects, layers, motion paths, variables, etc. have related names. 

For complex interactions, also consider adding programming notes (e.g., in text off the slide or on a layer that's never shown). Those notes can be helpful when you want to reuse an interaction later, but don't quite remember how the programming works. 

Branching scenarios aren't exactly something where a template or checklist is going to work (other than perhaps templates within Storyline or for collecting SME information). A template wouldn't make any sense in Twine.

If you're looking for a learning strategy that can be the same every time you create it, and therefore a template would be helpful, then you're looking for something that isn't a branching scenario.

The reality is that every branching scenario project is different, and the branching structures and approaches used depend on the audience, learning goals, and other constraints. There's no "this is the magic easy button." There's a bunch of "here's some considerations and factors to weigh for different approaches." If it was easy, there wouldn't be enough content for me to teach a 2-month-long course on it. :)

I have a series of 9 blog posts that explains my process of creating a branching scenario from start to finish. What's on my blog actually is my process; I really don't use templates.

You might also find Patti Bryant's presentation on scenario mapping documents helpful. This is a way of collecting and organizing the information from the SME. My own interview process tends to be more fluid than this, but you might find this kind of structure easier.

You might also look at Kimberly Goh's approach. Her examples are more "interactive stories" than true branching scenarios, with a very limited branching structure. She advocates for more of a linear/fake branching/gauntlet structure (she calls it "optimized"). While I disagree with her conclusion that the limited structure is right for most situations, I 100% agree that it's easier to manage. If you're looking for plug-and-play (kind of) branching structure, then this is a better way to go. This might also be a better starting point for you than to do a true branching scenario. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e44I1CLlxPk

I'd actually look into Clark Aldrichs shortsim approach. Agin - "it depends" - but the shortsim methodology he's using is super-fast and makes a real difference. Mind you - storyline is extremely ill-suited for quick scenario branching compared to other tools like iSpring talkmaster og branchtrack. It's good for complex stuff involving variables, employing videos etc. 

The "it depends" part of my answer relates to how complex you want your scenario to be. Not as in number of decisions made - that's easily tracked and colorcoded in branchtrack (which is easily embedded in Storyline by the way), but as in the complexity of the visual and the role they play on each slide. Branchtrack only supports images, so you'd have to create your visuals to match.