Recent experimental results on domain wall dynamics in a chemical reaction and an optical system will be analyzed. In particular, two-dimensional front dynamics will be studied in detail experimentally and heoretically in a nonlinear optical system based on sodium vapor with single-mirror feedback. A t^1/2 power law for the coarsening dynamics is validated as well as modifications of this behavior in the vicinity of a pattern forming bifurcation. A phenomenological equation for the radius of circular domains is proposed to explain the observed phenomenology.