Other than a robust imagination, some skills are probably good to have. If you have never done anything javascript visualization wise, it might be a steep learning curve.
Our current UI is coded using Red Hat Patternfly and React. Being familiar with those, while not required, certainly would help.
To setup a dev environment of ChRIS and the UI, we strongly recommend Linux. You can get by macOS. Please do not try this in Windows. If you have Windows, then we would suggest repartitioning your hard drive and installing Ubuntu in the free space.