wsetchell

I'm a software engineer. So far I've only worked on backend parts of systems. I want to start doing front end engineering work.

What skills should a front end engineer possess that most backend engineers don't? What can I do to build that skill set?

Here is where I'm at now - I don't know HTML/CSS very well. How should I pick that up? (I found most tutorials online aren't written for someone very technical so they can be frustrating)

- I can tie together mediocre javascript. I can make things work, but I can't write very cleanly or quickly.

- I have no UX design experience or training (other than common sense).

- I can't (yet) turn ideas into mocks via fancy software (eg photoshop, illustrator, ...) Should I learn a tool to do this? Which one? How should I go about learning it?