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Congratulations on the masters! :)

I would say step one is to read "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug. The book is full of common sense advice that helps eliminate a lot of decision fatigue.

This blog - The Nilsen Norman Group is a great resource for the "functional" end of things, full of tips and research results on what people find the easiest and most enjoyable to use. Its another resource that gives you a ton of information on what mistakes to avoid when designing interfaces, and what has generally worked out for other designs.

As for aesthetics, just immerse yourself in good work as often as you can. Dribble is good if you view the designs with a grain of salt because a lot of them look great but would be pretty damn hard to use, wouldn't work on mobile etc. Pinterest is good too, and generally just approaching websites you come across critically and thinking "what do I like about this design? What don't I like?"

I'm also like Goodweb.design at the moment too, it's a good one to use to see how many different executions of content with the same purpose can work.

The best teacher is of course experience. Pick something and design for it. If you're stuck and can't figure out how to improve the design, just trawl the internet for ideas or draw wireframes on scrap paper.

This channel is FULL of great design advice. The videos where the company owner reviews employee work is really valuable.

This video is a little drier and a little more on the analytical side, but again gives great insight into how people use interfaces and why they use them like they do.

Hope there's enough there to keep you busy for a little while and see if UX/UI is the direction you'd like to move toward :)

You could start checking the UI Guidelines from the system you want to design for.

Read Sketching User Experiences.

Work on side projects. Get inspiration from Dribbble. Don't just copy, Steal Like an Artist.

After that, check design+code

If you want to know more, feel free to PM me, I'd be glad to help! :D

Read Sparks of Genius. It's a book about "tools" that can be used for creativity/idea creation. Skim through the related books too because a lot of them are good as well.

Watch Aaron Draplin take on a logo design challenge. He uses several of the tools (e.g., brainstorming, associations, abstraction, etc.).

Too often, we think that creativity is something that either flows from you or doesn't. That's simply not true. We are all capable of being creative.

When I was starting out, I got a lot of use out of Universal Principles of Design. It breaks down a lot of terminology and best practices with clear diagrams and examples.

As for learning UX design, my best learning experiences came from practice, practice, practice

the bible IMO is grid systems by Josef Muller Brockton, https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Graphic-Design-Communication/dp/3721201450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478318609&sr=8-1&keywords=grid+system+josef

Great editorial design lives in a well crafted grid, read all you can on typography, good type foundations mean a good eye for spacing, paragraphs. Learn composition, color and contrast. IMO editorial design combines almost all design basics into one form of design.

I like these. Worded even more fundamentally, you get to an easy to remember acronym I learned a long time ago: CRAP.

Contrast - Maximize the difference between elements to reinforce hierarchy and make desired elements stand out (related to your #2 and #3).

Repetition - Reinforce the hierarchy by repeating elements: colors, fonts, spacing (2,3).

Alignment - Place elements deliberately to form a strong visual order (1).

Proximity - Arrange functionally similar elements close together to form intuitive groupings (1,5).

If you can follow those principles, then your #4 will be satisfied.

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    *Source: The Non-Designer's Design Book (which ironically looks like it was designed by a non-designer, but still a good resource for learning design).

I would recommend starting with Elements of User Experience. It'll give you a great overview of UX design.

Then, to go into even more detail, I'd recommend About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design. It's much more practical and detailed.

Those were two of the books we used when we built the [User Experience Design Immersive program at General Assembly] (https://generalassemb.ly/education/user-experience-design-immersive)

Hands down the best book I've read on development. Very visual for designers. https://www.amazon.com/Web-Design-HTML-JavaScript-jQuery/dp/1118907442/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1543354175&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=learn+html+and+css&psc=1

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Also any series from https://abookapart.com/ is fantastic.

Don't make me think by Steve Krug. The holy bible of UX.
Read it, learn it, love it.

I'm not learning graphic design. I'm learning UI design and I can do it fairly well in my computer that has 2gb ram and a9 year old Core 2 duo processor.

So this one is more than enough for what you need

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i5-8250U-GeForce-A515-51G-515J/dp/B075KCJHMD

It has a dedicated graphic card, Full HD screen and an i5 8th Gen processor and 8gb ram. You're getting more than what you're asking for in this price range.

It all depends on your display setup, how much desk space you have, and how much you want to spend.

That being said, I always recommend this one as a catchall for most users: https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos-Medium-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B00MJSAIH6

Column width is covered very well in Grid Systems in graphic design, it's a very informative read packed with a ton of useful info.

"According to a well-known empirical rule there should be 7 words per line for a text of any length. If we want to have 7-10 words per line, the length of the line can be readily calculated. So as to keep the type area light and open in appearance, we have to determine the leading. "

"To choose a width of column which makes the text pleasant to read is one of the most important typographic problems. The width of the column must be proportioned to the size of the type. Overlong columns are wearying to the eye and also have an adverse psychological effect. Overshort columns can also be disturbing because they interrupt the flow of reading and put the reader off by obliging the eye to change lines too rapidly. Lines which are too short or too long reduce the memorability of what is read because too much energy has to be expended. There is a rule which states that a column is easy to read if it is wide enough to accommodate an average of 10 words per line. If the text is of any length, this rule is of practical help."

The book goes a lot more into it, but that's the gist.

https://www.amazon.com/Typographic-Design-Communication-Rob-Carter/dp/1119312566/ref=nodl_

https://www.amazon.com/Meggs-History-Graphic-Design-Philip/dp/1118772059/ref=nodl_