  Social media (i.e., Reddit) users are overloaded with people's opinions when
viewing discourses about divisive topics. Traditional user interfaces in such
media present those opinions in a linear structure, which can limit users in
viewing diverse social opinions at scale. Prior work has recognized this
limitation, that the linear structure can reinforce biases, where a certain
point of view becomes widespread simply because many viewers seem to believe
it. This limitation can make it difficult for users to have a truly
conversational mode of mediated discussion. Thus, when designing a user
interface for viewing people's opinions, we should consider ways to mitigate
selective exposure to information and polarization of opinions. We conducted a
needs-finding study with 11 Reddit users, who follow climate change threads and
make posts and comments regularly. In the study, we aimed to understand key
limitations in people viewing online controversial discourses and to extract
design implications to address these problems. Our findings discuss potential
future directions to address these problems.
