ZnO films were electrodeposited from an aqueous nitrate bath on ITO/glass substrates. The process was performed not by the usual potentiostatic approach but by using potential ramps with different sweep rates. We tested these ramps in both directions i.e. either towards electronegative (direct) or electropositive (inverse) potential. As expected, the samples prepared in different deposition conditions show different morphology, different quality of crystalline structure and different optical properties. By employing inverse ramps we prepared films with high quality structural and optical properties. We assume that in these conditions the growth is followed by an etching process which preferentially removes the areas with high defect concentration and leads to the formation of hollow hexagonal prisms. ► Electrodeposition using ramp potential was employed for tailoring structural, morphologic and optical properties of ZnO films. ► By reverse polarization deposition, hollow hexagonal prisms with uniform dimensions were obtained. ► Reverse polarization deposition leads to high structural quality, high intensity UV emission and low deffect content.