GIS tools alone are not geodesign. The value of GIS as a geodesign tool is clear, however its ability to handle massive complexity comes with a risk as well. Automated functions such as spatial statistics, batch overlays, and network analyses can appear to almost magically produce results through a process that the geodesign team may not have observed or even requested. Over reliance on GIS, without properly recognizing how and where it fits into the process, will not produce clearly understood and acceptable results. Other software capable of processing adaptive behaviors and other complex algorithms further extends the illusion that the computer is producing solutions. As the team's technical abilities improve, it is easy to get lost in the mythos of algorithms and coding in pursuit of an unbiased holistic answer.
GIS does not replace the geodesign process. The geodesign process is always a decision-centered process. Digital techniques, similar to hand-drawn techniques, do not "find" solutions. GIS and all of its many valuable functions are tools that contribute to the geodesign process. It performs the labor of the team's decisions that are guided by the geodesign framework. However the decisions that drive this automated labor are more important than the results. The function of the geodesign framework is to enable the geodesign team to make well-informed decisions.
For example, at the 2014 Geodesign Summit Carl Steinitz presented two recent workshops conducted by himself and his teammates. The first workshop was held in Mexico and was an exclusively analogue process. The second, held in Japan, featured the use of GIS-based process models and mapping. However the geodesign strategy employed for both workshops was remarkably similar. More so, the Mexico project is an excellent example of how the geodesign process may be effective with "little time and small data."
You are welcome to enjoy the entire talk at the link below courtesy of ESRI Video. At a minimum, please watch the segment from approximately 18:30 to 38:00:
http://video.esri.com/watch/3140/geodesign-with-little-time-and-small-data
The product of any model, digital or hand-drawn, is a value-laden recommendation that serves as a vehicle for discussion, critique, and feedback. If the product matches the values of the team and the stakeholders, it may be accepted and implemented in the landscape. All of the tools discussed here – the geodesign framework, Lewis' Axioms, Hadon's strategies, Meadow's diagrams, and GIS software – are all tools that perform the overarching function of facilitating a geodesign study as an extension of the geodesign team. The people using them drive how these tools and others are used together. Creating fitness in the landscape is not automated; it is very much a human process.