It sounds like you got a hot topic. As a web designer, I believe that the best way to improve your abilities in this regard is to look at a lot of good projects; meaning, actively seek them out.
As the pixel says, there is not much objective knowledge that needs to be studied (although there are some ). This is more about improving your aesthetic eye. If you constantly look at high-quality models, your tastes will become more refined, and your web projects will naturally correspond to your acclimatized aesthetics.
For example, I work on the indie metal label, so from time to time I have to work on group sites, album designs, magazine advertisements, stickers, clothes / shopping projects, etc. Therefore, I always flip through metal magazines and look through ads created by other people, or admiring the trading projects of other groups or checking the sites of other labels.
This not only serves as a source of inspiration when I am stuck, helps me evaluate my abilities and find areas for improvement, but also helps to keep track of constantly changing trends and fashions in my particular area of design.As we all know, fashion is fickle, and people always change. A good designer knows how to stay ahead of the curve all the time. This means that your projects do not deviate too much from the accepted aesthetics (otherwise your projects will be rejected by the audience), but you also do not want to use design elements that are excessively used and played out.
If you can ride on a knife edge and get enough innovation to stand out, but not so much that the audience can not accept it, then you will master the art of web design. A good designer can identify new trends and capitalize on them by making them their own, adding their own twist to them.
If you're just starting out in web design, don't be afraid to imitate others and steal good ideas. Do not plagiarize and do not give credit when a loan should be granted, but just like making copies of famous drawings / paintings is an important technique for teaching drawing and drawing figures, therefore it also emulates high-quality projects, an effective tool for teaching graphic design.
Sites like Best Web Gallery and Screenalicious are great places to dive into quality designs and layouts. I would highly recommend crawling these sites in your free time to fill your mind with examples of good aesthetics.
EDIT: I also want to emphasize that talent is not so much a factor as many people think. More often, interest is what people confuse as “talent.” If you really have an interest in something, you will be motivated to immerse yourself in it and practice it. This, in turn, leads to improved abilities, and if at an early age it creates confidence, which leads to a breakdown of ability, which leads to greater confidence and more interest, which, in turn, leads to more practice ...
I consider myself a worthy graphic designer (you can check my portfolio at the link of my profile) and a good artist. And people often comment on how talented I am, but they don’t understand that I literally spent thousands of hours honing my craft. While other children were playing with their friends, I was in my room. This is the only reason I have succeeded in drawing. And when I first started building websites, they looked just as disgusting as most Myspace pages for teens. Therefore, do not be disappointed when you see the work of "talented" designers. It all started with humble beginnings.