Creating a unified UI

I've been working on a site that makes use of a view mixin structure. If the view is defined in the for the controller, use it, otherwise use the default view for that action. The views are very atomized [list.rhtml, _list.rhtml, _list_search_panel.rhtml, _list_search_form.rhtml, _list_table.rhtml, _list_table_head.rhtml, _list_table_row.rhtml]. It works great, but there are limitations. Now, the system was not created by me, but had input from me, so I'm not going to bad-mouth it. But what it has gotten me thinking about is my need for an ActionHelper object.

The ActionHelper object would be responsible for knowing what the breadcrumb trail should be as well as the page title, and "tabs" that should be on the page, actions that can be taken, the current location in the menu list. As of right now, this idea is sort of floating around gathering mental momentum. The purpose of this ActionHelper object is to create the interface for building a unified UI.