Creating a Jitter Plot

A Jitter plot is similar to a box plot however it displays the data points across a random y axis; allowing you to easily distinguish multiple points in a way that would be impossible if they were plotted on a single line.

To create a jitter plot is surprisingly simple so I thought it would be good to create a #BestNewTableauSkill guide walking you through the steps.

Create a standard box plot

First create a standard box plot by placing your measure on Columns and your dimension in the details marks card. Next create a new calculated field:

random()

Add the random calculated field to rows

Place this calculated field on Rows; it doesn't matter what aggregation you select but for simplicity I have placed it as a Continuous Dimension.

if you wish to place a box plot over the visualisation you can do using the analytics tab but this is purely a matter of personal choice; in the example below I have used one.

It is as simple as that; just one extra step and your box plots can become a lot simpler to read when you are visualising a large number of data points; the examples below hopefully evidence the difference.

Traditional box plot

Jitter plot