What helped me go from being completely unable to design a simple form to doing okay looking UI (not great yet) was simply to learn to draw. The best UX designe

What helped me go from being completely unable to design a simple form to doing okay looking UI (not great yet) was simply to learn to draw. The best UX designers I've had the occasion to work with came from art school backgrounds, so I think there's definitely something to it. After grinding drawing for a while, it becomes very easy to simply see what works (and what you like) in other software UI-wise, and re-use that on your own projects. One recommendation I have is not to try to over-focus on the design of single components (ie. buttons or form inputs). It is fine to reuse a lib for that. What's really going to make the difference is how you organize them across the page, and the colors you pick. Edit: since I haven't really mentioned any courses: proko.com has great drawing courses. For books, check out Andrew Loomis' Fun with a pencil and Betty Edwards's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.