Behind the Making of Monex, Inc.’s Introductory Website

Founded in 1999, at the dawn of online securities trading in Japan, Monex, Inc. has been helping shape the world of online investing for over two decades.

For this project, we set out to plan and create an introductory website for first-time investors and those considering investing for the first time. At the heart of our approach was the idea of bringing together the strengths and values Monex has cultivated over the years into one coherent brand personality. Through an experience that conveys this personality, we wanted to help visitors find an entry point to investing that feels right for them. What should Monex communicate, and how should it engage with its customers? With the aim of creating communication that contributes to business outcomes, we spent around six months discussing these questions with the Monex team.

The initial brief from Monex was to “transform investing into an experience that feels personally relevant to more people, guided by our own beliefs and values.” As more people begin investing, the perception that investing is difficult or something out of the ordinary remains a persistent barrier. Monex wanted to move away from an experience centered on the securities company itself and instead create a customer-first experience—one that would embody the distinctive qualities of the Monex brand.

In this article, we share our perspective on the ideas we explored and the intentions behind this project.

You decide you want to start investing, only to visit a securities company’s website and find yourself overwhelmed, unsure where to begin. I’ve been there myself. To change the perception that “investing is difficult” or “investing is hard to understand,” we needed to take a closer look at exactly where people get stuck.

A key insight came from Monex’s vision of making investing a tool for self-fulfillment. What do people want to achieve through investing? In our conversations, the Monex team emphasized the importance of helping people choose how to invest based on their own goals, interests, and passions. That idea resonated deeply with us.

At the same time, when we looked at how securities companies, including Monex, communicate with customers, we noticed that much of the messaging focused on the companies’ and their products’ strengths: customer satisfaction ratings, the number of accounts, fees, and rewards points. These are all important factors when comparing services. But for someone just starting out, we felt it could be difficult to understand what any of these things meant for them personally.

People have different reasons for wanting to invest. Some want to prepare for the future; others want to enjoy the things they love even more. We felt there needed to be an entry point that embraced these differences.

This led us to a hypothesis: beyond the challenge of understanding the technical aspects of investing, another major barrier to taking action is the feeling that, while interested in investing, people simply don’t know how to choose an approach that’s right for them.

So how could we help people find an approach to investing that suits them?

We started by imagining who would visit the site and what they might be feeling as they considered investing for the first time. From there, we developed specific entry points tailored to each person’s goals, interests, and concerns.

For example:

For those who want to enjoy their passions, whether travel, art, or something else, we offered ways to start investing that could open up new experiences and possibilities.

For those who feel uneasy about committing a large sum of money, we introduced ways to get started with small, manageable amounts.

For those who want to support their favorite brands or companies, we showed them how to discover investment opportunities through their existing interests.

Rather than asking people to compare products right away, we wanted to give them a chance to first consider what they wanted to achieve and how they might feel comfortable getting started. We then created a path from those personal motivations to an approach to investing that felt right for them.

This people-first experience became the foundation for making investing a tool for self-fulfillment.

We also believed that the way we guided people along this journey could express what makes Monex distinctive. By acknowledging each person’s interests and uncertainties, and helping them explore where to begin, we set out to turn the act of guiding someone toward investing into an experience that conveys the personality of Monex itself.

What kind of personality does Monex express when engaging with its customers?

To understand this, we revisited the company’s history since its founding, the messages it has shared over the years, and the way it has built relationships with its customers. What stood out to us was a sense of humanity that comes through the screen, even though Monex has always delivered financial services through the internet.

The people behind the messages are visible. The company values both the words it shares with customers and the connections it builds with people. It makes a point of engaging in regular dialogue with its customers. And it has continued to do all of this since its founding.

Even through a screen, we could sense a commitment to treating each person with sincerity and without distinction. When face-to-face interaction isn’t possible, the words a company chooses and the way it communicates become all the more important. They reveal how it truly regards its customers. Over the years, Monex has consistently demonstrated this kind of care, and we came to see it as one of the company’s most distinctive qualities.

We decided to express this personality consistently throughout the website’s customer experience. By acknowledging visitors’ interests and uncertainties, and supporting them as they explore their options, we wanted people to get a feel for the kind of company Monex is—not simply through what it says, but through the experience itself.

We set out to bring two ideas together in a single experience: making investing a tool for self-fulfillment, and communicating the distinctive personality of Monex.

The experience begins by asking visitors what they want to achieve and what interests them, then suggesting ways to get started with investing based on their answers. When they feel uncertain, the site offers explanations to help them make choices that feel right for them. Through these interactions, we also wanted visitors to experience the sincerity and humanity that define Monex.

Rather than simply explaining the company’s strengths, we wanted people to experience its values through the way the site guides and engages with them. This became the foundation of the entire website. To bring Monex’s personality to life, we considered the choice of words, the sequence of questions, how options were presented, and the visual design and animation as interconnected parts of one cohesive experience.

One source of inspiration for the visual direction was the Monex logo. We felt that its friendly expression held the potential to convey the warmth and humanity that make Monex distinctive.

Building on this mark, we set out to create an approachable experience that would make it easier for people to think about investing, using language and movement to bring a sense of warmth and familiarity. Our goal was for visitors to experience the personality of Monex throughout their journey, all the way to finding a first step that felt right for them.

This concludes our overview of the brand strategy that formed the foundation of the website.

Next, we’ll take a look at how we brought this personality to life through words, visuals, and animation, exploring the creative process behind the site’s overall look and feel.

Once we had established the creative direction for the website, we moved into production, from wireframing and design to development. In this chapter, we look back on the process, accompanied by reflections from the team members involved in each stage.

Alongside developing the site structure, we began looking for the right people to create illustrations and copy that would bring the project’s theme and content to life.

・The Search for the Right Illustrator

・ Reaching Out to Ryu Okubo

・Ryu Okubo’s Comments

website：https://ryuokubo.com
instagram：@ryu_okubo_

・ Developing the Copy and Character Dialogue

Copywriting was essential to shaping how the website would guide visitors through their introduction to investing. Rather than simply presenting financial products and specifications, as traditional securities companies often do, we wanted to spark moments of realization and encourage people to think about their own relationship with money. In our conversations with the Monex team, a wide range of ideas emerged about the kind of voice the site should have.

Some of the qualities we discussed were:
Intelligent, humorous, and approachable.
Should it feel global in character, or distinctly Japanese?
Neither too formal nor too casual.

A knowledgeable guide to investing, but not someone who presumes to be an authority on life. Someone who speaks to customers as an equal, rather than talking down to them or simply telling them what to do. As we explored these ideas together with the Monex team, one key phrase gradually emerged: “cynical humor.”

Over the course of more than six months, our entire team kept coming back to two questions: How could we make investing feel more accessible? And how could we create an experience that genuinely helps people discover new ways of thinking about their relationship with money? We worked through these questions together, exploring ideas, testing possibilities, and refining the details until we found an approach we believed in. Our hope is that more people will come across this site and think, “Maybe this is worth exploring,” or “Perhaps I’ll do a little research to start.” And that, in turn, it will inspire them to reflect on their own relationship with money.

We hope this site will continue to meet many people along the way, serving as a small but meaningful starting point for their journey.