Techniques are described for determining a duration for a transition and alteration of the appearance of a user interface (UI) from a first UI state to a second UI state over the transition duration according to a timing function that specifies different rates of change in appearance over the course of the transition and is derived by adjusting a master timing function that is used to control a plurality of transitions in the UI to span the transition duration for the transition. A time value of an inflection point within the timing function is determined and the transition duration is divided into a first portion and a second portion so that the first portion extends from the beginning of the transition duration to the time value of the inflection point, and the second portion extends from the time value of the inflection point to the end of the transition duration.