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violin plots should not exist

Angela Collier · commentary · Watch on YouTube

Data visualization & information designData science & statistics

What it is

Physicist Angela Collier rants for 42 minutes about why violin plots are a poor way to show data, citing papers on violin and bean plots. It is part lecture on how to read distributions and part opinionated critique.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN links it in data-visualization threads as an entertaining case against violin plots.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2023, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “which made things fall into place”

    Made the commenter's dislike of violin plots make sense.

    bjoli, 2023-11 · Recommendation · in “Friends don't let friends make certain types of data visualizations”

  2. “Here is a great rant (borderline lecture) from Angela Collier on why they aren’t [0]”

    Great rant on why violin plots aren't better.

    j_bum, 2024-06 · Recommendation · in “I've stopped using box plots (2021)”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: violin plots, box plots, statistics, plotting, rant

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