How We Scaled Our Design System with Dynamic Navigation in a Hybrid Laravel App

The Problem with Hardcoded URLs During a Rebrand

We recently rebranded and expanded our service offerings at AustinsElite, launching two new pages: Day-Of Coordination and Full Event Coordination. While exciting, this shift exposed a quiet technical debt we’d been carrying — hardcoded URLs scattered across Blade templates and navigation components.

Every time a page moved or a slug changed, we had to manually grep through files looking for /services/weddings or /about-us references. It wasn’t just error-prone; it slowed down iteration. During the rebrand, we realized that if we wanted to scale our design system across multiple service lines (and potentially sub-brands), we needed a more maintainable way to manage navigation.

Hardcoded paths don’t scale. They break silently. And when you’re juggling UX consistency, SEO slugs, and Laravel’s routing layer, they become landmines.

Implementing Named Routes for Future-Proof Navigation

Our primary app, AustinsElite, runs on Laravel 12 — not Next.js, despite earlier labels suggesting otherwise. But we do use a hybrid pattern where Blade templates render dynamic layouts with reusable components, similar in spirit to how you’d structure pages in a modern frontend framework.

The fix? We leaned fully into Laravel’s named routing system. Instead of writing:

<a href="/services/weddings">Wedding Planning</a>

We switched to:

<a href="{{ route('services.weddings') }}">Wedding Planning</a>

This small change had outsized impact. Now, if we ever change the URI for that route — say, from /services/weddings to /offerings/matrimony — the link updates globally without touching a single template.

We applied this pattern across our compact navigation bar, footer links, and even embedded CTAs within marketing copy. One commit — 'Switched compact nav to routes' — cleaned up over a dozen hardcoded strings and aligned our markup with Laravel best practices.

But the real win was consistency. With named routes, we could build a shared navigation partial that dynamically pulls in route names and labels, ensuring every page uses the same destination logic. This became critical when adding the new Day-Of and Full Event Coordination pages. Instead of guessing paths or copying patterns, we just registered new named routes:

Route::get('/services/day-of', [ServiceController::class, 'dayOf'])->name('services.day-of');
Route::get('/services/full-event', [ServiceController::class, 'fullEvent'])->name('services.full-event');

Then dropped them into the nav config. Done.

Scaling the Design System Beyond This Release

This refactor wasn’t just about cleaner code — it was about enabling velocity. By decoupling URL structure from presentation, we made it safer for non-developers (like content leads or junior team members) to work with navigation components without fear of breaking links.

It also sets us up for future growth. Imagine spinning up seasonal microsites or regional variations (e.g., austinselite.com/aus). With named routes, we can abstract routing logic behind feature flags or environment-aware helpers, keeping the UI layer stable while backend paths evolve.

We’re now treating routes as first-class citizens in our design system. Just like buttons or typography scales, they’re documented, versioned, and referenced consistently. We even auto-generate sitemaps and breadcrumbs using the same route collection, reducing duplication.

Looking back, this feels like one of those 'small fix, big ripple' moments. We didn’t need a framework swap or a rewrite. Just a deliberate step toward better patterns within the stack we already trusted.

If you're working in a hybrid environment — whether Laravel with Blade, Symfony with Twig, or Rails with ERB — don’t underestimate the power of named routes. They’re not just for form actions or redirects. They’re the backbone of a maintainable, scalable frontend.