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What about violin plots. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_plot https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_plot

• 317070 2y ago
  I was thinking the same thing while reading, but the author does mention them at the end (together with the bee swarm plot or sina plot, which I think is the better version of a violin plot) https://www.rhoworld.com/i-swarm-you-swarm-we-all-swarm-for-beeswarm-plots-0/ https://www.rhoworld.com/i-swarm-you-swarm-we-all-swarm-for-...
• Scea91 2y ago
  I use violin plots but a complication is that the shape depends upon the bandwidth hyperparameter of the kernel density estimator that is used inside. The plot can differ a lot for different bandwidth values. Selection of the 'proper' bandwidth is a classic bias-variance tradeoff problem.
  • IshKebab 2y ago
    While true, that's not an additional problem compared to box plots which effectively just set the bandwidth to maximum. So IMO they are strictly better.
    • IanCal 2y ago
      I find violin plots suggest far smoother results than actually exist so you need to be careful with the amount of data.
      • IshKebab 2y ago
        I agree but so do box plots. I think probably the best thing is violin plots when there's lots of data and bee swarm plots when there isn't. But either are better than box plots.
      • karmakaze 2y ago
        What about using rotated, symmetric histograms--like a quantized violin plot?
• mjfisher 2y ago
  The author mentions those at the bottom of the article, but two problems highlighted still remain: * There's another intermediary concept (kernel density estimation) between the audience and the data * They're still likely to misrepresent tight groupings and discontinuities, which will be smoothed out
  • adammarples 2y ago
    Histograms and box plots are just clunky kernels density estimates too