Do you find making useful charts from your data a bind? Do you want an easy tool to translate your data into professional looking graphs? Well Nigel Legg and his Ozviz tool want to help you do just that. We caught up with the Bristol-based founder of data analysis startup Chibwe to get the lowdown on his latest professional graph creation tool recently released in beta for people to try for free.
“I felt that there ought to be a cheaper way to high quality charts – without the user having to write too much code”
“Ozviz is a simple to use online data visualisation tool,” Nigel tells us. “I built it because too many people rely on poor quality graphs produced in Microsoft Office, or spend huge amounts of money on products like Tableau. I – and quite a few people I talked to about it – felt that there ought to be a cheaper way to high quality charts – without the user having to write too much code.”
“Ozviz has only been in beta for a few days” he explains, “but a few people have taken a look, and so far the feedback has been good. At the moment I’m looking for people to push it, to find the things they need that it can’t do.”
“Bristol has a vibrant community of people working with data, and numerous meetup groups around technology”
Nigel is a known member on the Bristol tech scene and fully appreciates the support it has provided to both his startup and him: “Bristol has a vibrant community of people working with data, and numerous meetup groups around technology. This, ties with the scale of the city (which means you can get to everything quite easily), means that you can quickly gather feedback on ideas and prototypes. [Bristol tech incubator] Webstart Bristol was also very useful to me last year in helping me understand how to identify viable products, and in overall support.”
Ozviz in the future
So what’s next for Ozviz? Nigel tells us: “At the moment there are a limited number of chart types, and all the formatting is set up in advance. Through discussion with Beta users, I will add charts and add the facility for users to format their charts (not everyone wants their bar chart to be in blocks of teal).
“I also plan to provide for access to data in other formats and from other sources, such as APIs, which can then feed into more dynamic charts. I will be looking at the creation of dashboards and embedded live charts (if possible).”
“Ozviz as it is now is just a start,” says Nigel. “Anyone who creates charts often can use it – and I’m happy to hear what you think.”
Thanks to Nigel for letting us know about Ozviz. You can see more on the products Chibwe make at the Chibwe website or by following @Osmiumdata on Twitter.
