WordPress Theme Review Processes

WordPress Theme review processes can vary a lot. I’ll try to summarize what kind of reviews I’d like to see and then write about my experiences about theme reviews in different places.

Stay tuned for at least these ones:

1. ThemeReview.co theme review by Justin Tadlock and Sakin Shrestha.
2. WordPress.org theme review.
3. WordPress.com theme review.
4. Theme Forest theme review.
5. Do it yourself theme review.
6. Other marketplaces?

What do I expect from theme review?

First thing first. If you haven’t reviewed and checked your code first don’t waste others time sending your theme to any marketplace. I don’t expect others to do heavy lifting for me.

But there are several things that I’d like to see in theme review:

• Some kind of automated script for first look and bad practices. Theme Check and VIP scanner comes first to my mind. But no automated script can do all the work. I require human eye.
• More human eyes is even better. If two people is going to review your work they will see it in different light and spot different things.
• For accessibility review native screen reader user or only keyboard user would be awesome. If it’s not available strong understanding about accessibility is a must.
• Review the code. Line by line in every file. Turn every stone. If there are problems give examples how it could be fixed.
• Review UX decisions and give feedback. Same goes for design decisions. Give feedback but don’t just tell change this and change that because you “feel” like it. Explain why I should consider changing something.
• Test the theme in demo and real content. Test every options in the Customizer and every possible use cases you can possible think of. Try to break the theme. Go ahead, break it!

Is there something else you would like to see? Let me know in the comments if you have other ideas.