Where / how to learn how to make eye-catching design?

Question

Design

When planning to become a full-stack developer, I would like to be able to do UX/UI as well. By "be good at UX/UI" I mean the ability to make visually pleasing, easy to use and interesting (at least not primitive) sites. At the moment, all the test sites I write for practice look the same and are boring.
I usually get inspiration and ideas from behance, awwwards and dribbble. But copying someone else's cool and beautiful design without understanding what exactly makes it cool and beautiful does not suit me very much. I would like to master at least the basics of the "correct" design, so as not to stupidly plagiarize someone else's. Namely, I would like to understand: how to choose the right font and color scheme (so that the page does not hurt the eyes and colors convey the mood of the site), how to arrange objects on the page (so that it does not look either overloaded and uncomfortable, or empty and uninformative), where are the chips should be applied, and where it is better to avoid them ... I hope you understand what I mean?
So far, all the courses and videos on YouTube that I have seen about UX / UI teach how to work with figma, sketch and XD - how to use the tools to implement the intended design. But how to conceive this very design and how to critically evaluate it from the point of view of convenience / attractiveness - I have not yet found this.
What books, courses, videos would you recommend on this topic? In Russian or English - it doesn't matter. Or is it better not to bother with this and take work with behance, awwwards and dribbble, etc. as a basis?

Answer 1

full stack developer

This is called the webmaster if that.
Full stack is the ability to work with front and back. And as a rule, a full stack has nothing to do with UI \ UX (although it seems like it owns a front-end).
Even the front-developer, as a rule, gives this prerogative to the designer, since the designer is good at creating a good layout, and the front-end is already typesetting and animating it in an accessible way and according to the canons.
A good front-end developer is not the same as a good UI/UX designer and developer.
You are now talking about the work of a webmaster - ala draw a design and stretch it on a CMS, and this is not a full stack.

What books, courses, videos would you recommend on this topic? In Russian or English - it doesn't matter. Or is it better not to bother with this and take work with behance, awwwards and dribbble, etc. as a basis?

That's it, everything comes with experience, you just need to look at as many good, beautiful things as possible. And design as much as possible. If you design, forget about the backing altogether, there just won't be enough hours in the day.

Answer 2

Build a decision tree to create an image of what needs to be designed for the desired site theme:
1. World type:
---1.1 Real world
---1.2 Unreal world
2. General design type:
---2.1 Blocky - Flat / Flat
---2.2 Blocky - Layers/Material
---2.3 Scene - Fairy Tale
---2.4 Scene - Futuristic
....
....
3.1 Appearance Season
:
3.1.1 Winter
3.1.2 Summer
3.1.3 Fall
3.1.4 Spring
3.2 Interior view
Plastic
Metal
Wood
....
4. Color range
....
5. Texture and blocks
5.1 Block types
5.2 Types of textures in blocks
5.3 Types of block decoration
5.4 3D-elements: borders, bulges/concavities, bends, etc.
....
And further - already placement on a grid and UI/UX.

Answer 3

I liked it very much Build a "tree" of decision making, I will also use it