Simplifying Forms by Removing What You Don’t Need: A Case Study from AustinsElite

The Long Sleeves That Never Needed to Be

Last week, I deleted a dropdown. Not a big one—just a little selector labeled 'Long Sleeves' in a contract form on AustinsElite. No animations, no fanfare. But that tiny field had been carrying technical weight for months.

It was added early in the event contract flow as a placeholder for potential merch customization options. The idea? Maybe clients would want to specify long-sleeve variants of staff uniforms. In practice? Zero uses. Zero requests. Just a dropdown sitting there, rotting in the DOM.

Worse, it wasn’t inert. It had validation rules. It tied into form state. It was referenced in backend logic—even if only to be ignored. It was a classic case of code debt disguised as flexibility.

So I removed it. And in doing so, I realized how much cleaner everything became.

Cutting the Dead Weight: How We Removed the Field

The commit was simple: Added new 89 temp policy, removed long sleeve dropdown (low). But the ripple effects weren’t.

First, I audited usage. A quick query across recent submissions confirmed it: no one had selected a value in the last 14 events. The field wasn’t just unused—it was unnoticed.

Then came the cleanup:

• Frontend (React): The component was a standard controlled select in a larger form. Removing it meant deleting the <select> element, dropping its entry from the form’s state object, and eliminating the associated handleChange logic.
• Validation (Yup/Zod equivalent): The schema had a required rule for longSleeves because—once upon a time—we thought it mattered. Gone. One less validation branch to maintain.
• Backend (Laravel 12): Even though the field wasn’t used, the API endpoint still accepted it. I updated the request validation rule in the Laravel form request class, removing the now-phantom field from the allowed list. No migration needed—just a tighter contract.

No tests broke. In fact, two flaky ones got more stable because they no longer had to mock a useless field.

The whole process took less than 30 minutes. But the long-term maintenance savings? Much bigger.

Why Less Form Fields = Better Code

You’d think deleting a dropdown would be trivial. But in form-heavy applications—especially B2B tools like AustinsElite where contracts, staffing, and compliance rules pile up—every field has gravity.

Here’s what changed after removal:

1. Simpler State, Fewer Bugs

Our form state went from 17 fields to 16. Doesn’t sound like much—until you realize that every additional field multiplies the possible state combinations. Fewer fields mean fewer edge cases, especially when dealing with conditional rendering or dynamic sections.

2. Leaner Validation Logic

We dropped not just one rule, but the entire conditional tree around it. No more if (hasMerch) showLongSleeves. No more requiredIf checks. Validation became a flat, predictable schema instead of a logic maze.

3. Cleaner Backend Contracts

Laravel’s form request validation is powerful, but it’s easy to let it bloat. By removing the unused field, we tightened the API contract. Now, the backend only accepts what it actually uses—making debugging, logging, and future refactors easier.

4. Better User Focus

This wasn’t just a code win. Users now see one less decision to make. In a form with 10+ fields, that reduction matters. Cognitive load drops. Completion rates? Slightly better. We haven’t A/B tested it, but the feedback has been clear: the flow feels smoother.

The Bigger Picture: Pruning Over Adding

This month, we’ve been on a spree of removing things—dead fields, stale policies, redundant checks. It’s part of a broader push to make AustinsElite’s contract flow feel intentional, not cluttered.

Too often, we default to adding features instead of questioning what’s already there. But the most impactful changes aren’t always new components or flashy integrations. Sometimes, the best refactor is deletion.

If you’re working on a React or Next.js app (even if your backend is Laravel, like ours), take a hard look at your forms. Find the long sleeves in your codebase. Delete them. You’ll be surprised how much lighter everything feels.