We explored WordPress parallax themes this week. We reviewed dozens of theme demos looking for the right one. We fell in love with “Persona” theme. The graphic design and the available layout elements looked great! However, during initial setup we came to the determination that this theme is a no go. We rate this theme a solid “FAIL”. More details on how we came to this conclusion below.

• This theme ONLY SUPPORTS 7 “PANELS/PAGES”—Anything more than seven pages crashes WordPress.
• As long as the theme is active WordPress will not be able to delete the extra page.
• This a serious bug. Deactivating the theme to delete a page should not be necessary.
• This alone constitutes a “FAIL” rating on postjoe.com.

Our guess is that the theme author is well aware of issues with Persona WordPress Theme. Small details are hidden under “FAQ” tab. The fact that this theme only supports seven pages for example. Here is what is says on ThemeForest:

Does this theme has any limitations on pages?

Since this is a single page theme, we have separate sections on the web page. In order to make parallax layout to be stable, we have limited total number of sections possible on a page to a maximum of 7. We are sure that it is convenient for global usage.

It is in fact NOT CONVENIENT*. Page eight sets off a WordPress failure that can only be overcome by deactivating the theme. A smarter design of the theme control panel would allow unlimited panels. Some slider plugins, like “LayerSlider”, demonstrate the technique. Slides are unlimited but all the additional options for extra slides remain unseen until the user decides to add a new slide. This keeps the UX clean while allowing unlimited slides to be added.

UX Nightmare

There are additional UX problems with this theme. Going back to the parallax effect; the simplest parallax effects are just two layers sliding over each other at different speeds. Typically, this would mean one background and one “overlay” layer. The idea is simple, the background scrolls at a different speed than the overlay thereby creating an illusion of depth. This technique has been around long enough to reach maturity level. In expert hands amazing effects are possible.

Terrible UX.

The UX problems with Persona Parallax WordPress Theme are not isolated to the number of panels. Another major issue we had with this theme is that the backgrounds and overlays as described above are edited on different panes of the theme control panel. Why?* These options should be accommodated on each page as additional custom fields where it would be completely clear what background/overlay is associated with each page. Separating these controls from the pages themselves is bad news, but this theme takes it further and separates the overlays from the backgrounds! Add to this the fact only one overlay/background combo is allowed per page and we are left completely underwhelmed by this purchase.

• This theme only allows ONE background and ONE overlay image per panel. 
• The first PANEL does not support parallax (this should be made clear in the theme description).
• The background/overlay control panel is separated from the pages they correspond to.*
• The background/overlay control panels are separated from each other!

We have called it quits on this theme. But others are reporting in the comments that this theme may not be working as advertised on mobile devices. One user even complained that the demo images showing the theme on iphones are photoshopped and that the theme does not actually work on iphones at all. 🙁

We will be back later when we’ve found the best responsive parallax WordPress Theme—stay tuned.

-postjoe.com

The theme author posted this on ThemeForest in response to our review:

This theme has page limits applied as default (7 pages) because it is a One Page theme and here pages are referred to various Sections inside the same page.

If we allow unlimited pages (means sections) users will not care about it and they will create a lot of pages which will lead to performance issues (adding more parallax elements on a single page theme will cause browser to hang in common scenarios). Hence we made the page limit. Please understand that if a user needs more pages we are manually sending him the modified one by email (just 2 line of code will do this for our developers, we have already done it and sent to some buyers here on demand.)

However we are working on an update to increase the page limit to 12-15 (but never an Unlimited setup).

We have got a theme called Reason WordPress with the same logic you have mentioned (like sliders), but implementing that on this theme will affect old customers. We may have to release it as a separate version otherwise it will difficult for old customers to port their existing setup.

The theme author also commented on the overlays/backgrounds:

We have kept ONE background and ONE overlay image per panel / sections. This is because 95% of the users will be looking for parallax with such a setup. Kindly understand that if we keep unilimited number of overlay layers (we can do it) people will find it heavily complex. Adding more parallax overlay layers will cause theme to hang on (browsers will find it heavy and more memory will be needed for rendering the animations).
Hence we are keeping it simple on global usage purpose.

Our issue here is that this once again is not made clear in the theme description, and in addition the method by which these overlays/backgrounds are added makes for poor UX. We really appreciate that the theme author responded to our concerns. However, the theme author did not comment on the fact that simply adding more than 7 pages crashes WordPress. Most of our concerns are related to UX and knowing what we buying up front. A theme that crashes WordPress will simply never be considered a good theme by postjoe.com.