MESH Model: An Analysis of Roles, Responsibilities, and Dependencies in Student-Powered XR Production

MESH Labs (Media Experience Service Hub) at Arizona State University runs on 42 student workers organized into seven production guilds: Project Management, Narrative Learning Design, UI/UX, 3D Modeling, Spatial Audio, Spatial Game Engine Integration (Dev), and Quality Assurance.

The MESH Model is a shared mental model for student-powered XR production — composed of the MESH Labs guild-to-project structure and a MESH Weave of roles, responsibilities, and dependencies. Data was collected at an all-hands event in August 2025, where 21 students worked within their guilds to identify their primary contributions and reliances on other roles.

Four guilds independently named Development as a primary dependency. The narrative team listed "following objectives" as a responsibility — but objectives come from clients through project managers, so we reclassified it as a dependency in the final weave. Small distinctions like this are what the MESH Model is built to make visible.

The goal is a framework that any higher education lab, course, or club can adapt — grounded in practice, not abstracted from it.