  Automatic documentation generation tools, or auto docs, are widely used to
visualize information about APIs. However, each auto doc tool comes with its
own unique representation of API information. In this paper, I use an
information visualization analysis of auto docs to generate potential design
principles for improving their usability. Developers use auto docs as a
reference by looking up relevant API primitives given partial information, or
leads, about its name, type, or behavior. I discuss how auto docs can better
support searching and scanning on these leads, e.g. by providing more
information-dense visualizations of method signatures.
