Interactive tidal graphs

Tidal information can be presented schematically, where each number depicts the height of the tide at a given hour (columns) on a given date (rows) as shown here.

Tidal information can also be represented in the form of a line graph, where the height of the tide is read off the vertical axis and time is read off the horizontal axis. An example of a tidal graph is shown below, where the horizontal axis extends over seven days.

A graphical user interface makes it possible to present a series of daily tide graphs in a temporal sequence, which reduces the area needed to display the graphs. Instead of displaying the daily tidal figures side by side, they can be presented one day at a time within the same graph, with forward and back buttons used to display the next or previous day, as shown here.

The problem with this method is that searching for tidal information for a particular day requires numerous clicks of the mouse.

The advantage of the new interactive design (below) is the ease of locating a tide graph within a temporal series. A succession of graphs is activated by dragging the cursor sideways across the face of the graph. The sideways movement of the cursor creates an interactive animation showing how the tidal pattern changes from day to day.