How to visualize status where a lower number or a zero is better than a higher number?

I am in the process of designing the user interface of a ticket system. There will be a dashboard view which displays the most recent number of open ticket. One user need is to be aware of open tickets, so the user can close them ASAP.

To encourage the user not to keep tickets open for too long, I'd like to display "aging" tickets, by visualizing groups tickets into age groups, e.g. "tickets opened today", "tickets opened this week", "tickets open last week or before". Typical visualization techniques have a positive connotation for large numbers (e.g. pie charts, bar charts). Here, the zero is the hero number.

In a nutshell, here are the requirements for the visualization technique:

  1. The total number of tickets should be grouped into age groups (e.g. "tickets opened today", "tickets opened this week", "tickets open last week or before")
  2. The total number of open tickets per age group should be visible.
  3. The visualization should associate a small number with a positive connotation, especially the zero, and a high number with a negative connotation.

Problem: What is an appropriate visualization technique which meets the requirements?

Options: I have considered different ways to visualization techniques for open tickets but they don't meet all of the requirements above:

  • Pie chart: good to visualize the relative proportions of different aging groups, but not the total number of open tickets per age group. Problem: Does not meet requirement 3 (a zero is not visible).
  • Bar chart: Good to compare the number of open tickets per age group. Problem: Does not meet requirement 3 (a zero is not visible).
  • Circles: Each age group is visualized with a single circle by itself. A small number is represented by a small circle, a large number by a large circle. Problem: Does not meet requirement 3 (a zero is not visible).
  • Just numbers per age group: Good to inform the user about the total amount per age group; Problem: Does not meet requirement 3 (a zero is visible but does not have a positive connotation necessarily).

Do you have any other idea?

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