We have enhanced our 20 issues Dashboard applet to show a big red background color in the ACK column if the item is unacknowledged - this is very visible across the room and on a projector, so we can see from afar that we have a new item.

What happens is we have 5-10 items on the last 20 issues list, all acknowledged, but then another arrives; it's very hard to see unless you are watching it. This color makes it instantly obvious there is a new issue until someone sees and acknowledges it.

For us, the change was in the CSS file and tied to No Ack state on the screen. Very easy.