Mention Labs
Mention Labs is the app studio inside Mention Group. SmokeDar, the air-quality radar featured on WUWM, Milwaukee’s NPR. MKE.bike. Batter Up. Real, shipped apps people use, alongside experiments, small fixes for annoying problems, and ideas too fun not to make.
This is not a graveyard for unfinished ideas. It is a place to imagine what could exist—and then start building it.
In the lab
A few are practical. A few are ambitious. A few are probably ridiculous. All of them started with the same question: what could we make?
The oldest sibling. A free, no-account web app for Milwaukee riders that became a crash course in product development, maps, permissions, public information, local politics, and how quickly people discover something useful. No matter where it goes, we will always love it.
The all-in-one game-day clipboard for youth baseball, born in the dugout. Lineups, fair rotations, pitch counts, and walk-up songs—free, private, works offline. Tested where all great software is tested: at the ballpark.
On July 16, 2026, Milwaukee’s air quality index blew past 500. It was the worst on record, nearly double the old mark, as Canadian wildfire smoke turned the sky orange and shut the pools and beer gardens. I spent that day building SmokeDar: a free smoke radar that shows whether smoke is overhead or in the air you are actually breathing, what is burning upwind, and whether it is safe to step outside. No account, no ads, nothing sold, free for anyone anywhere, and yes, there is a game. Built fast, with discoverability and accessibility in mind, because the sky was not going to wait.
As heard on WUWM 89.7 FM, Milwaukee’s NPR: “Milwaukee man creates app to track air quality following wildfire smoke” · July 24, 2026 · Listen (4:36) on wuwm.com ↗
A small fix for an annoying problem. Too early to name, too fun to shelve. It began, as most of these do, with the sentence “why is this so hard?”
A game, an art project, or both. Fun and addictive for reasons nobody can fully explain. Play builds instincts. Experiments reveal possibilities.
Some lab work is already on the shelf: the AI Mention Report, the Visibility Checklist, and the Speed Test. Built in the lab, used every day.
Have an idea?
Maybe you have a frustrating process that should be simpler. Maybe your organization needs an app, tool, prototype or better interface. Maybe you have a strange idea and need someone who will not immediately explain why it cannot be done.
That is my favorite kind of conversation.
The origin story
I began designing for the web in 2004 while living abroad and building a website for a jobs and education center I had created. At the time, I was learning HTML, hosting, code, branding and communications—mostly because there was nobody else around to do it.
I was also learning user experience before I knew to call it user experience.
Every day, I had to track down different email accounts, website builders, hosting tools and services. I kept thinking: there has to be a better way.
So I took Google’s homepage, placed it inside an iframe and added a row of blue links across the top. Suddenly, everything I used was one click away.
Yes, bookmarks probably existed. That was not the point. I wanted the internet organized around the way I actually worked.
A few years later, Google began putting its own product links front and center and eventually introduced the familiar grid menu it still uses today.
Did I invent it? Of course not. Did I have the right instinct? Absolutely.
That instinct—spot the friction, imagine something better, build a version and see what happens—is what Mention Labs is all about.
Not every idea has to arrive with a perfect business plan. Some projects begin with a real customer problem. Some come from coaching baseball, riding a bike, raising kids, attending events or trying to make technology less irritating.
Some begin with a sentence like: Why is this so hard? Why does this app not exist? Could this be more fun? Could this be faster? Could this work for everyone? What would happen if we tried it?
Then I start building.
A few of these ideas may escape the lab with a press release, a launch campaign and a life of their own. Others may become client tools, prototypes, community projects, licensing opportunities or the beginning of something much larger. The future is open.
Why it matters for clients
It is easy to look at an app and think, that seems simple. Then you build one.
You discover permissions, privacy, accessibility, APIs, onboarding, hosting, user behavior, politics, app-store requirements, edge cases, distribution and about forty-seven other things hiding behind the screen.
The first project teaches you how difficult it is. The next few teach you how to do it better.
It is like making baseball bats on a lathe. At first, you are trying not to ruin the wood. After making five or ten, you begin to understand the grain, weight, tools, styles, limitations, buyers, distributors and all the relationships required to turn an object into a product.
That experience compounds. And much of what we learn in the lab goes directly into the websites, campaigns, apps and digital products we create for clients.
Mention Labs is also home to experiments that may never become businesses. They may be games, art projects, strange little utilities or ideas that are fun and addictive for reasons nobody can fully explain.
That does not make them failures. Play builds instincts. Experiments reveal possibilities. And sometimes the strange little thing you made for fun becomes the idea people cannot stop talking about.
Success is not built overnight. It is built by following curiosity, doing the work, making things, and continuing long enough for the lessons to compound.
Welcome to Mention Labs
Follow along between launches at ryantea on Substack—notes from the designer, developer, and dad behind the Lab.