I hate this list. Want to be good? Look at sites/apps you admire and learn to emulate them. Don't read a 300 page book on User Experience or ugh, UX... unless you're doing for enjoyment.
Sounds like a good plan for cargo-cult web design.
A good book on UX (which stands for the same User Experience, btw) will teach you why you admire particular web sites.
You really don't care if someone has a conceptual understanding of UI/UX? I guess that's fine if you're not doing anything unique. But if you are, how is your designer going to be able to think through the unique design problems posed by your product?
I mean - take Mint, which has been widely praised for its design. Would a designer have been able to produce it by cobbling together half-understood components from other sites?
I'd really like to hear more about why you don't think a designer needs to be able to understand what design is. I'm curious about how you think he'd even be able to successfully emulate other sites if he doesn't understand what to emulate and why.
I just don't think studying these concepts makes you better. Designing makes you better. Practice and good feedback. To me, UI and UX can read like buzzwords on a resume. I'm not saying they're not important components. I'm just disagreeing with how one should learn them. Perhaps I could have been more clear in my original comment.