How do you "scan" the board? What is your technique?

I started learning chess this year; have played a bunch of puzzles on chess.com; working my way through the beginner lessons on chess.com; and have played the computer and a couple of humans.

My question relates to how you SCAN the board during middle and end game play.

I come from an aviation background, so when I say "scan", I'm thinking about how a pilot scans from one display to another on the panel while checking altitude, airspeed, position, etc. Or how an Air Traffic Controller scans the runway from one end to the other, the taxiways, and arriving and departing aircraft looking for conflicts and resolutions. A

Each profession has specific techniques for performing these scanning tasks. Does something like this exist in the world of chess?

Here's what I've been doing while playing and practicing:

1.  Identify the location of my king and the opponent's at the start of the practice scenario.
2. Look for any immediate, 1-move, or 2-move checkmates on my king or the opponent's king.
3. Then start branching-out either by proximity to my king or the opponent's king, and look for long-range attacks or 2-3 move attacks that might benefit or hurt my game.
4. If I have not grasped the concept of the scenario, then I will start scanning the board file-by-file and rank-by-rank to see what I've missed.

What do you do? Anything similar? Something completely different?

Thanks!

"Scanning" in chess terms usually means "evaluating the position" for chess players. I evaluate my position if its winning or losing with a few things in mind.

1. King safety - This is the most important thing to evaluate in a position. I don't need to explain this, but the king is the most important piece in the game. And if you get checkmated, you lose, the same goes for vice versa. King safety is when I check the board to know if my king is in danger. "Are there any checks the opponent can give my king? And are there any checks I can give his king?" That is why, oftentimes, players always castle early to protect their king.

2. Material - This is very simple and quick to understand. Checking for the points of material count if you're up a piece, pawn or down material can evaluate if you're winning or losing in a game.

3. Piece activity - Now, this is where things get complicated and where evaluating becomes hard for most players. Pieces has what I like to call "standard value" and "relative value". All pieces has a standard value that is the same forever:

Pawn = 1 point

Bishop/Knight = 3 points

Rook = 5 points

Queen = 9 points

King = Win

The relative value of pieces is a more advanced form of standard value. For example, let's compare two bishops, the first bishop is in the corner of the board, locked away by its own pawns without coming to life forever, and the second bishop is in the middle of the board, eyeing all directions of its sight. Which piece has more value? Obviously, its the second bishop. Pieces can go up and down its value relative to the position and in some cases, a bishop can be worth more than a rook.

4. Tactics - This is the closest chess term I could find synonymous to the literal term of "scanning", but the other ones above is important for the pilot term for "scanning" so I felt the need to explain the other ones. Anyways, scanning for tactics or the best move is important because scanning for tactics can more or less win you the game.

So yes, scanning exists in chess terms and it's called "evaluating" the position. Hopefully this helps you more understand about chess and terms. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask and I'll try to explain it in the best of my abilities!