We ended up doing something similar here with multiple views. Similar, but different. Our app is very desktop like, with basically a layout container with sub-p

We ended up doing something similar here with multiple views. Similar, but different. Our app is very desktop like, with basically a layout container with sub-parts that re-render. Instead of a "widget" system, I created a parent-child hierarchy, where parents would bubble child events on up. This way, the router just receives app notifications from a 3rd or 4th level child and can decide to "switch" the main view. The parents cleaned up the kids. It worked for this app, but I don't think our pattern was particularly useful unless you had to build the kind of complex "pseudo-multiframe" kind of app we were building. This is why I love the approach of backbone. It's easy to read, and establish new patterns. Our "multiple view" pattern we're using is a little different from what sendhub is doing, but I think it was fairly direct for both of us to get what we want.