More Clarity and Transparency for the Canton of Zurich

Transparent and Informal Public Policy

To better support the democratic values of the canton of Zurich and Switzerland, the governing council commissioned us to make information available digitally on their website. 

Information is Key

Unic developed the website concept, design and image concept and supported the implementation of the website in partnership with Zeix and One Inside. The new section titled ‘Legislative Goals 2023–2027‘ is now part of the zh.ch website. It provides residents with information on goals – not just at the beginning or end of a legislative period, but continuously and in a format that is easy to understand. 

Goals, Measures and Implementation 

What are the short-term and long-term goals of the governing council of the canton of Zurich? What measures are being taken to achieve these goals? And how is the implementation progressing? In the past, getting these questions answered required a lot of patience: The canton of Zurich only published its goals at the beginning of a legislative period and a final report at the end of it. Both were available as PDF files.  The challenge: The files provide a host of information in countless small chunks, usually phrased in a way that is hard to understand for the average person. 

Structure and Content 

That was one of the reasons why the new section entitled ‘Legislative Goals 2023–2027’ has a clean look and is well-structured: 

• Public Safety 

• Education 

• Culture, Sports and Leisure Time 

• Health 

• Society and Social Security 

• Transportation 

• Environment and Spatial Planning 

• Economy 

• Finances and Taxes 

• General Administration 

Image Concept 

For every topic, the canton of Zurich now presents the legislative goal and long-term goals in comprehensible language. The main topic is introduced with an image, which reflects the dynamic development in visual language. 

More specifically: At the beginning of the legislative period, the images are blurred on purpose. As the implementation of the measures progresses, the images become clearer. It pays off to visit the website from time to time, not just for the content, but also for the visuals. 

More Clarity as Implementation Progresses

Our concept supports the canton in its efforts to make long-term, mid-term and short-term political goals visible. It creates transparency and enables the administration to showcase how far they have come with their implementation throughout their term.   

The image concept supports this increasing clarity with images that are not fully visible at first but become clearer and more complete over time. The images depict people from the canton of Zurich in day-to-day situations. 

Users and Measures in Practice 

The Measures section lists 59 entries with their current status. The canton updates this continually. For many of them, this means: After the publication of the 2024 annual report. Depending on their interests, users can track legislative goals and filter for the related measures illustrated on the site.