Fundamental development of the applicability of discontinuous coatings as novel, effective alternatives to continuous coatings is carried out. High coefficients of friction lead to potentially harmful interfacial tensile stresses beyond the trailing edge of the contact region. In light of this, discontinuous coating troughs may be used as reservoirs to store solid lubricants, thereby reducing the operating friction coefficients. Consequendy, potentially harmful tensile stresses due to frictional sliding and frictional heating may be significantly reduced. Hard alumina coatings deposited on softer aluminum substrates, in continuous as well as discontinuous, rectangular two-dimensional layers were analyzed using the finite element method as well as a non-finite element numerical method. The intent was to observe the effects of bulk contact deformation, frictional sliding, and temperature loading on the contact stresses. The results of the finite element analysis indicated that the coating geometry has a significant effect on the stress field. The difficulties experienced in modeling the discontinuous coating edge radii and crown radii using the finite element method, in light of the small dimensions involved, were overcome using the nonfinite element numerical method, developed to provide a faster and easier means to model the coating geometry. The results show that normal pressure singularities produced by sharp edges on the coating cannot be eliminated by merely rounding the edges when multiple coating islands are in contact with a rigid indenter. However, suitably chosen crown radii and island gaps will help reduce or eliminate the normal pressure singularities. The non-finite element numerical method may be used as a design tool to estimate a discontinuous coating geometry for a given set of input variables such as indenter geometry, coating and substrate material properties, and loading conditions. The viability of the continuous and the discontinuous films is discussed by using a fracture mechanics approach for semiquantitative evaluation of coating life. Additional ideas for future work are also discussed.